Shloshim Tribute to Rav Aharon Walkin: Siyum Mishnayos, Harbatzas Torah, and His Legacy of Chesed

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. On behalf of our family, I would like to thank everyone for joining us in this shloshim tribute for our dear father, Zecher tzaddik v'kadosh livracha. We will begin our program today by making a siyum on the completion of three cycles of Shisha Sidrei Mishnah. First, on behalf of the Queens community and the talmidim, second, on behalf of the Lakewood community, the mispallelim and the kollel, and third, from our family. My brother Yitzchak Zev completed the entire Seder Moed in honor of the shloshim. I would like to call upon him to say the last Mishnah before the Hadran. The final Mishnah in Moed, in Chagigah, discusses the Kohen Gadol's procedure for the restoration of the Azarah to its original state of taharah after Yom Tov. Mishnah starts: Keitzad meviin olah taharah la'azarah? What was the procedure for removing the utensils from the Azarah to restate it to its original state of taharah? Even less on keilim shebaMikdash, they would immerse all the keilim in the mikvah except for the ones that were not allowed to be moved, for example the shulchan, because the pasuk says by the shulchan the word tamid, so we learn from there that it cannot be removed from the Azarah, even for the mikvah. And the Kohanim that took care of the Azarah would tell the Kohanim that came for Yom Tov that some of them weren't knowledgeable in the hilchos of tumah and taharah, so they would tell them to be careful not to touch the shulchan because that can't be tevelled in the mikvah and taken out of the Azarah. The Mishnah continues and says, to discuss what they did when the first set of utensils went to be tevelled in the mikvah. Kol keilim shebaMikdash yesh lahem shnayim v'shlishim. All utensils in the Beis HaMikdash had two or three sets, so in case the first one became tamei, the second and third were there for backup. So the Mishnah concludes: Kol keilim shehayu baMikdash, shehayu im tevilah. All keilim in the Beis HaMikdash needed tevilah after each Yom Tov, chutz mimizbach hazahav u'mizbach hanechoshes, except for mizbach hazahav and mizbach hanechoshes, mipnei shehein karka, because they’re considered karka and they’re not mekabel tumah. דברי רבי אליעזר. Chachamim omrim, mipnei sheheiin metzupin, because they were covered, were plated with some sort of metal, either gold or copper, v’hein deform were mekabel tumah and need tevilah just like the rest of utensils. I'm.

Come together, or getting together. And for a chesed, if you didi, the ... walked into ... and ... that ... so many shiurim, so many ... such a tremendous hashpaah. A person was, was not in it for himself. The ... to do something ... such a simple, passionless ... such finekeit, such a fine person. Even though he had such a tremendous hashpaah. Chazal tell us that the chiyuv for hesped, for a eulogy for somebody that's tani, someone that learned Torah, the shiur is shishim ribo, 600,000 people is the shiur of kavod that this person needs. And I guess that's the amount that happens today, but shiur man d'tani, shishim ribo. Man d'tani a masni is less than shiur. Someone that taught others Torah is less than shiur. How does the Gemara know that the shiur is shishim ribo? 600,000 people should come to a levayah? Gemara says, because netilaso k'nesinaso. The taking away of Torah is the same thing like giving of the Torah. The amount of kavod that the Torah needs when Sinai was Torah was given to shishim ribo, that's the amount of kavod by netilaso. That proof needs a pshat why netilaso has to be like nesinaso. But obviously that's the amount of kavod of Torah, that the Torah accorded to kabbalas haTorah, to Torah. L'choira that's the maximum amount of kavod. So what is the shiur of man d'tani a masni? Why somebody that's tani a masni, his lesser shiur is even more than 600,000, without a גבול, without a shiur? Obviously the reason is not because this person deserves more kavod. That's not the reason. Because the shiur of kavod, the amount of kavod... Cannot do more than the kovod of nesiaso, and that's, which Chazal measure kovod, that is the highest amount of kovod. So the reason is that someone that's a marbitz Torah, it's not because of the amount of kovod that he needs less leshirah, because every Yid has to feel like he was nis'al, he lost, he lost as a person. Now, someone that's talmid masmid doesn't mean that he taught more than 600,000 people. Talmid masmid means he teaches Torah, teaches Torah to others. Someone that teaches Torah to others in a mashpia of Torah, his hashpaah is far-reaching, is far-reaching even to those that did not learn by him. His Torah is a Torah of chesed, Chazal tell us in Sukkah, that someone that lomed al menas l'lamed, his Torah is a Torah of chesed, even before he teaches, when he's lomed al menas l'lamed. His Torah is a klal Yisroel's Torah. Such a person that's not in it for himself, is in it to be mashpia on others, his Torah be'etzem is a chesed for every Yid in Klal Yisroel, is uplifting, is meraymem every Yid in Klal Yisroel, and every Yid in Klal Yisroel is a beneficiary from this person that's a talmid masmid.

That's why it's less leshuah. There's no shiur to the amount of kovod, to the amount of chiyuv that everybody has to feel for these aveilos. Reb Aharon Walkin, zecher tzaddik livrachah, was a tremendous mashpia of Torah. And what was his koach to be mashpia of Torah? He was a meisim atzmo kimidbar. He was a meisim atzmo kimidbar; he was hefker, he was mafkir himself. The schedules that he kept, the amount of work that he did, the amount of hashpa'ah that he had, the different types of tziburim of people that he reached out to, was somebody, as a malach, a tremendous talmid chacham like Reb Aharon Walkin. He looked to be mashpia to people on his level, people a little bit under his level that he could uplift them. But he reached out to all different types of levels, because the Torah was not for his. It's not for his being. The Torah was a Torah which is a Torah chesed l'Yisrael, and therefore it's less leshuah. Ein l'da'ageinu. What can we do? What can we say? The petirah was in such a time when this was not allowed, when we weren't able to be mishtatef in the levayah personally. But the aveilus is felt by everybody. The hefsed is felt, and therefore we come together at least to express, not to be mis'asel, b'hesped shel chochmah, to express our aveilus, what we feel we lost, what we feel we had. We lost such a person, which was a Torah, was such a Torah chesed. He was meisim atzmo kimidbar. The meisim atzmo kimidbar has two pshatim. One pshat is that he makes himself— כי במתן תורה, this Torah gives us Torah almost to others, others to others, over to others. Another pshat is, ... that he makes himself ... he's b'anivus. These are the people that are ... These are the people that their Torah is automatically a Torah for Klal Yisroel. Everybody is a beneficiary from this Torah. Torah ... he's the one that can be mashpia. Torah, his Torah can be, is a Torah of chesed for everyone. Dovid and Yonason, Dovid HaMelech said, ... he says, ... Yonason. Na'amta li me'od. He says that he made very pleasant for Dovid HaMelech. What is this special chesed of na'amta li me'od? He made pleasant for everybody. We find it in Megillas Rus. In Parshas Shemini, which was just a few weeks ago, even those that ... but they went to the parsha. The parsha says that they yetzu, vayevorchu ... pesach ohel moed, Moshe, Aharon went out to bench Klal Yisroel. What was the bracha they gave to Klal Yisroel? Rashi brings, ... שכינה במעשה ידיכם. And then Rashi brings the pasuk, וִיהִי נֹעַם ה' אֱלֹקינוּ עָלֵינוּ, וּמַעֲשֵׂה יָדֵינוּ כּוֹנְנָה עָלֵינוּ. He gives Klal Yisroel a bracha that they just finished building the Mishkan, they just finished the hakamas haMishkan. So now is the time to bench Klal Yisroel that Shechinah should be shoyreh in the Yom HaSiyum, in the Mishkan that she built, that there should be hashra'as haShechinah in that Mishkan. And therefore, you should be mashpia that. And the pasuk, it brings on that is, Vihinoi Ani, the ne'imus of Hashem should be upon you. Hashra'as haShechinah is called ne'imus. Vihinoi Hashem Elokeichem aleichem, umaaseh yedeichem koneh aleichem. The Ribbono Shel Olam's ne'imus is upon us. The Ribbono Shel Olam's pleasantness is upon us. Maybe it's more than pleasantness, it's a feeling of uplifted, a feeling good, the good feeling of the ne'imus of being with the Ribbono Shel Olam. Why is it that Moshe Rabbeinu calls hashra'as haShechinah, Vihinoi Hashem Elokeichem aleichem? And we find the same thing. We find the loshon in Shir HaShirim. The pasuk says, Hincha yafah dodi af na'im. The pasuk says that the kallah tells the Ribbono Shel Olam, Hincha yafah dodi. You, now we're, it's all kevod Yochol, it's all our hasagos of the Ribbono Shel Olam, and we say, Hincha yafah dodi. The Ribbono Shel Olam is so beautiful to us. Af na'im, You're also pleasant to us. So actually, where do we see af na'im? She'avarta al peshai, You were mochel my chet, my chataim, my chet haegel.

Misreisa Shechinah ... That's what we see, v'hi noam Hashem Elokeinu. That's what we see, Afnoim, ... So asks the Vilna Gaon, what is the pshat? Why is Afnoim ...? So asks the Vilna Gaon. He says like this. He says sometimes, b'derech mashal, you see from afar, you see a beautiful person, a very handsome person, a person like ... What about ...? But it looks like ... from the back, and, oh, this is a person I want to get close to him, I want to know him, I want to connect with him. You come close, you see, ... the person doesn't have such good middos. The person maybe has a rough voice. There's no pleasantness to this person. There's no pleasantness to this person. You can't connect with him. Hinchei yafeh. Maybe he looks very nice, he looks very handsome, he looks very choshuv. But when you get close, you're trying to connect, you try to become ... you try to become one with this person, you can't, because there's no ne'imus. Hashroas haShechinah on Klal Yisroel, says the Vilna Gaon, is ne'imus. The Ribono Shel Olam is mashpia, connects with us. The Ribono Shel Olam goes into our being, and we're misarev, and we have such a connection. Such a connection is only shayach when the Ribono Shel Olam, His ne'imus is upon us, and it's back and forth, it goes both ways, haloch vashov. It's when we feel the ne'imus of the Ribono Shel Olam, and when we are the no'im to the Ribono Shel Olam, then we're misarev one with the other, and when, chas v'shalom, we don't feel the ne'imus, we can't become misarev. The etzem taaroves is itself a tremendous neimus. The etzem connection to the Ribono Shel Olam is in itself a tremendous neimus. Af noy means that the person has such shleimus, such midas tovos, such a connection that we could be misarev, we could connect, we could become one, we could get a gevaldige kesher. And then he could be mashpia such tremendous hashpaos. Then he could be called, makes him asmekuvin bo, Torah nitenes lo b'matanah. And that Torah can be counted as a Torah chesed, a Torah for Klal Yisroel, Torah that all of Klal Yisroel, that Torah goes into the bones, moraimim, all of Klal Yisroel, moraimim everybody. The neimus, the neimus of this person, the neimus of the ... meeting him, such midas tovos, such a hachnah to anyone, to anyone, such finekeit. It's just, it was a neimus. It was a pleasure to connect with him. Everyone talks of ... And therefore he was able to be mashpia on others. The pasuk says, Hinei mah tov u'mah na'im sheves achim gam yachad. If there's neimus of the ... michunech to ein shom nashi. This person had a tremendous neimus. Had a very interesting ... he was niftar right before Pesach. So Pesach I go, before Pesach I go to my hagados. I take out the hagados that I use, and I always like to add an extra hagadah. Maybe I can get something, take something from the extra hagadah. I picked out the Haggadas Chofetz Chaim, and I open up the Haggadas Chofetz Chaim. When I get back to Chofetz Chaim, it was a matanah from the ... And he wrote with such ahavah, such ne'imus, the way he wrote, פשוט a bracha for Pesach. And that was the Haggadah that I tried to use all Pesach to see what I can glim from the Chofetz Chaim to uplift our Yom Tov, the Yom Tov that we were all almost secluded. And we looked for things to uplift us; that was the one that uplifted our Yom Tov. Had a feeling that he had the way to uplift and to give the ne'imus into the Yom Tov, even l'achar petiraso. I can also say that ... that we had the ... long and ... You were manin, you made everybody feel so good. That's such a koach of hashpaah on people. Ribbono Shel Olam should help that it should be ... for your family, for your children, a ... for your parents, a ... for the yedidim, and for all Klal Yisroel. Your Torah was a Torah chesed. It should be ... begeder Torah chesed, for Klal Yisroel. Klal Yisroel is going through hard times. We are missing the manoim, afnoim, the ne'imus of the Ribbono Shel Olam coming to the ... to the Batei Knessios, to the batei medrashes. We're missing.

And who knows how many Amen Yehei Shmei Rabbas we're missing? Who knows, Amen Yehei Shmei Rabba, how this Amen Yehei Shmei Rabba is correct, ... how much more if we had the regular astounding Amen Yehei Shmei Rabba in the batei midrashim, how much that would have saved you. Who knows how much? We don't know what's the cause and what's the effect. We don't know. What we do know is that we're asking ... and that we should be able to go back there, ... so we go back to our tefillah and to our learning with regards to koach. But Hashem, Klal Yisrael is showing tremendous ahavas Hashem with the tefillos and with the learning, even in the hardest of circumstances. We should be ... Klal Yisrael, ... should be ... should be ... ומוח ה' אלוקים דמעה מעל כל פנים. ... משפחת וולקי. משפחה יקרה מאוד. ראש המשפחה, הרב הגאון רבי אהרן וולקי, זכר צדיק לברכה. הראו לי מה שהיה מלווה את הציבור, את הספרים של ... הספרים שלנו, ... היה לו שכל, אי אפשר. והוא הביא שבספרים האלו יש את הכל, גם מנהגים של הספרדים, ... גם דעת הרמ״א. תמיד, יש הבדל בין הספרדים לאשכנזים, לפי הפוסקים שלנו, אנחנו כותבים את זה בספרים. אשכנזים הוציאו מיד רמ״א, מהספרדים הלכו ליוסף, אשר אמר אליכם עשו. It is hard to believe, rabosai, that we are being maspid again a gaon, rabban, volkan, derech tzaddik livrachah. The emes is, the loss of Rav Baran is something that came so sudden, and it's going to take a long time before it's even going to be able to be absorbed. But we should realize what we lost. Boifen klali, Klal Yisroel lost a rosh yeshiva with a marbitz Torah, not stam a rosh yeshiva, but someone who had true mesirus nefesh for his talmidim. Chazal say an amazing thing. We find a medrash that כשמת משה רבינו, עליו השלום, when Moshe Rabbeinu passed away, היה יהושע הולך ובוכה. Yehoshua was the prime talmid of Moshe Rabbeinu, so Yehoshua would be הולך ובוכה; he would go and he would cry. What did he say? What did Yehoshua say when Moshe Rabbeinu was niftar? Omer, he said, Avi, avi, my father, my father, my tatte, Rebbe, Rebbe, my Rebbe. Why did he mention both? Why did he say that he lost a tatte and he lost a Rebbe? Avi, avi, Rebbe, Rebbe. So the medrash: Avi, you are like my father because shegadleini k'av, you raised me like a father, so said Yehoshua on behalf of Moshe. You raised me like a father. And Rebbe, shelamadnu Torah, you taught me Torah. And the kasha we have to ask: being that Yehoshua described that Moshe Rabbeinu played two roles in his life, he played the role of a father and the role of a Rebbe, why was he makdim the role of a father before the role of a Rebbe? We know the Gemara tells us, and we pasken that way, Maseches Bava Metzia, daf lamed gimmel: Aveidas aviv v'aveidas rabboi, aveidas rabboi kodemes. If your father loses an aveidah and your Rebbe loses an aveidah, which do you take first? Whose aveidah do you return first? So the Gemara says the aveidah of your Rebbe comes before the aveidah of your father. Why? Because your aviv mevi'o l'chayei olam hazeh, v'rabboi mevi'o l'chayei...

Olam Haba, because the father was the one who brought him into this world, but the Rebbe is the one who's bringing him into the next world. So, meileh, so the aveidah of the Rebbe is before the father. Why was Yehoshua magdim, and he said, Moshe Rabbeinu, he said, You're like a father, and then he mentioned you like a Rebbe. The Chofetz said that the kavod harav stands higher than the kavod ha'av. The Ksav Sofer, rabosai. The Ksav Sofer said, and when did he say this? He said this b'shaas there was the hakomas hamatzeivah to his father, the Chasam Sofer. And remember, the Chasam Sofer's name was also Moshe, like Moshe Rabbeinu. At the hakomas hamatzeivah to his father, the Chasam Sofer, it's mentioned the hakdamah to the sefer Daas Sofer of Rabbi Akiva Sofer, the Pressburger Rav. Ksav Sofer said the following: When someone loses a father, rabosai, the aveidah is felt immediately. As soon as you lose a father, aveidah, the heat of the moment, the tzaar of the moment, the loss, the amazing loss, the tremendous loss of losing a father is felt right at the moment. But as the Velt says, time is a healer. B'meshech hazman, the pain diminishes, becomes less and less, and so on. B'teva it is that a meis ultimately is shikchas halev; it is something that the heart forgets. That, says the Ksav Sofer, is only when a person loses a father. The heat of the moment, the passion of the moment, is at the highest peak at the time of the aveidah, at the time of the petirah, and as time goes along, it lessens, it diminishes. However, when a Rebbe is מסתלק, when a Rebbe passes away, said the Ksav Sofer, is the opposite. By a Rebbe, he says, as time goes along... The more that time passes, you are margish more the chesaron of the Rebbe. Because every week that goes by and every month, we have no shailas, we have no problems, we want to be shoel eitzah. And mimeila, as time goes along, we are more margish the chesaron of the Rebbe. We no longer have the Rebbe, all the sfeikos and all the problems. We have no one to go and to ask. We have no one to be poishet our shailas. Maybe we had a kasha and we have no Rebbe to be able to answer. So mimeila, says the Ksav Sofer, when a person loses a Rebbe, as time goes along, the tzaar adrabah intensifies, because now you realize all the more what you have lost. You have no one to turn to. Said the Ksav Sofer very beautifully, Ki shemeis Moshe Rabbeinu, all of Yisroel, when Moshe Rabbeinu passed away, hayehoshua holech u'bocheh. Holech means mosif v'holech. It continued on and on. That's what holech means. Otherwise it could have said yoshev u'bocheh. He is sitting and crying. What does it mean holech? He's walking around. Ksav Sofer said Yehoshua was holech u'bocheh. It means every day that went by, he realized all the more the great loss of losing Moshe Rabbeinu. Holech u'bocheh means he was mosif v'holech. And therefore he said, Ovi ovi shegadleini ka'av. That's referring to the immediate tzaar. The immediate tzaar is like losing an av. But then even more than that, Rebbe, Rebbe, the tzaar is the Rebbe more, who taught me Torah, the one that I'm always connected with to give me eitzes, to give me hadrachah in avodas Hashem, and in every area of my life. That's something that's going to be a continuous tzaar, and it's going to be intensified and even magnified as time goes along. I think the very same thing can say. Vetaire Rabban, Rabban, as great as the loss, the immediate, the immediate tzaar. Of course, when you are niftar so suddenly, very quickly. But now that it's already the shloshim, the thirty days have gone by and more, we realize all the more the tzaar and the tremendous void that has been lost by Klal Yisroel: your yeshiva, your talmidim, your wife, your family. The loss of a bochur just continues. It's a bechinah, Rabban, your bechinah is a bechinah of holech u'vocheh, that as the days go by we are being continuously mosif; it's mosif a holech to bechiyah and the hagoshah of the tzaar. Here, very aptly, we can apply what the great gaon, Rav Meir Shapiro, the great Rosh Yeshiva, upon losing a very chashuv talmid, a young talmid, and Rav Meir Shapiro was maspid his talmid in a way that no one else is able to do, with a great arder, the great baal madreigah, the great speaker that Rav Meir Shapiro was known. And he quoted the pasuk, Haben yakir li Ephraim, im yeled sha'ashuim. He pointed out, Ki midei dabri bo, when I speak about my son, haben yakir li Ephraim, when I speak about him, zocher ezkerenu od, I continue to remember him. Said Rav Meir Shapiro, the pshat is even more; the pshat is more deeper. Rav Meir Shapiro said, Haben yakir li Ephraim, when I lose you, I lost my taire son.

Referring to the Talmud that he lost. Ki mide dabri boi, when I speak about him, you know what bothers me? It bothers me, zocher es kreinu oid, how much more you could have done. You were niftar too long, too young. A long time would have been, a long time would have been enough had you lived a life, a healthy life, a fruitful life. It would have been time, time to leave this world. It was still many, many years. Long many years would have been enough till the time would come to you to leave. But you leave too early. You left too early. So zocher es kreinu oid, I remember the oid, how much more you could have done. And the same thing we say to Hagaon Rav Barn. The fact that you had so much hatzlacha here with the yeshiva in Queens, you were able to turn around talmidim who started out with knowing very little. You made them, you turned them, you transformed them to becoming talmidei chachamim, chashuve bnei Torah. One or two that I know have gone on to become rabbanim of kehillos and so on. We have transformed their life. We can only say that zocher es kreinu oid. We can only imagine how much more you could have done. You left this world too early, much, much too early you left this world. You know, Abosai, the Gemara says, Mesechta Shabbos, daf kuf yud ches. We're all familiar with that Gemara. Gemara אומר אביי, Abaye says, כי חזינא צורבא מרבנן דשלים מסכתיה, when I see a talmid chacham that was mesayem a masechta, עבידנא יומא טבא לרבנן, so I make a Yom Tov. Sima masechta warrants a Yom Tov. That's, by the way, the makor that when someone's mesayem a masechta, so we make a seudah, make a seudah for a siyum masechta. It's from this Gemara. Abaye says, when I hear, I see a talmid chacham that was mesayem a masechta, עבידנא יומא טבא לרבנן ממש, I make a Yom Tov. By the way, the lashon— Avidna Yom Tov, making a Yontif. The Minchas Eluzer, the Munkatcher Rav, used to say that on the day that someone is mesayem a masechta, you don't say Tachanun, because the Gemara says it's a Yom Tov, avidna Yom Tov. Abaye could have said, when someone's mesayem a masechta, I make a seudah. It doesn't say the words, I'm making a seudah. Yes, he's making a seudah, but not using those words. Avidna Yom Tov, the Rabbanan, is a kvius of a Yontif, and if the kvius of a Yontif, Yontif, you don't say Tachanun. Al kol panim, Abaye shows the simcha, what it means when someone is zocheh to make a siyum. We all know that Gemara. כמעט every siyum, somebody brings up that Gemara. Abaye is mesameach, has simcha when somebody is mesayem a masechta. But Rashi says there a few amazing words. Rashi says, Abaye Rosh Yeshiva hoyah. Who was Abaye? Abaye was Rosh Yeshiva, and remember, it's half of the pella. Why does Rashi mention over here, Shabbos קי״ח, why does Rashi mention over here that Abaye was Rosh Yeshiva? You realize it's quite safe to say that Abaye and Rava are the most mentioned in all of Shas, more than anyone, Abaye and Rava, the most common names in Shas. From Masechtas Brachos to Masechta Shabbos, Abaye and Rava possibly were mentioned about a hundred times. Rashi does not make mention that Abaye was Rosh Yeshiva. If Rashi wanted to mention, he could have mentioned right in the beginning, the first time when Abaye was mentioned in Torah shebaal peh, Masechta Brachos, Rashi could have then said Abaye was Rosh Yeshiva. Rashi doesn't say that. Why over here, Abaye is saying, when I see a talmid chacham mesayem a masechta, avidna Yom Tov, Rabbanan, Rashi is saying that Abaye was Rosh Yeshiva. Now I think, rabosai, that the pshat is— A mighty thing. Rashi is telling us a gevaldige yesod, what the definition of a Rosh Yeshiva is. A Rosh Yeshiva, rabosai, is not simply someone who says a good shiur. Of course, without saying a good shiur doesn't begin. So part of the zach of Rosh Yeshiva has to have a koach to say a good shiur. He has to be a gevaldige baal masbir, has to say a proper shiur, has to have the ability to raise the madreigah of talmidim, to turn them into lamdonim, to turn them into talmidei chachomim, to yirei Shamayim, avadeh. That's poshut. A Rosh Yeshiva has to be able to say a shiur. But that's not, rabosai, the total definition of a Rosh Yeshiva. Rashi is telling us the definition of a Rosh Yeshiva is: a Rosh Yeshiva is someone who, when he sees that a talmid is matzliach, he takes pride as if it would have been his own simcha. It's not, unfortunately, today we see many roshei yeshivas don't really have a shaychus to their talmidim. They're a tafkid to say a shiur for an hour or so, and then they leave the beis medrash. They don't see them until the next shiur. Does not have an ongoing relationship, a rebbi-talmid relationship. Many, many yeshivas, unfortunately, this is the matzav today. Rashi is telling us the true Rosh Yeshiva is someone that is so connected to a talmid that if a talmid is mesayem a masechta...

It's my simcha. It's the Rosh Yeshiva's simcha. Notice what Abaye said. Abaye said, when I see a Talmud Chacham, not I made a siyum masechta. No, not Abaye made the siyum. I see a Talmud Chacham that made a siyum masechta, I, Abaye, I am making a Yontif. Why is Abaye making Yontif? He didn't make the siyum. But Abaye takes the siyum personally when he sees a Talmud Chacham. A Rosh Yeshiva, says Rashi, that's the pshat of a Rosh Yeshiva. Rosh Yeshiva is someone who cares about his talmidim to such an extent that their growth, rabosai, is as if he has grown. Their simcha is his simcha. He takes personal pride in the growth of a talmid and in the simcha of a talmid. That's the true definition of a Rosh Yeshiva. That, rabosai, that was Reb Aharn. Reb Aharn Walkin was this type of Rosh Yeshiva that Abaye is referring to. Abaye, Rosh Yeshiva hoyo, that he takes and he always took personal pride. Every talmid to him was like a ben yochid. Every talmid was to him like a ben yochid. I've heard that from talmidim, the tremendous mesiras nefesh that he had. Imagine, rabosai, he lives in Lakewood, but he sleeps in Queens, away from his family many days in the week. Tremendous mesiras nefesh that he had for his talmidim. Every talmid by him was in a bechinah like a ben yochid. Some of the Chazon Ish, once related to a particular kollel yungerman that after learning many years in kollel, decided the time has come that he takes a job as a rebbe to become a maggid shiur somewhere. So the Chazon Ish says to that kollel yungerman who came to ask for a bracha before he is embarking to become a maggid shiur, the Chazon Ish says, I'm going to give you a very major point of instruction of how to be a successful maggid shiur. And he told him the story about the Rosh Yeshiva and the Rav of Telz, Reb Leizer Gordon. Reb Leizer Gordon was Rosh Yeshiva of many, many talmidim in Telz, in Europe, of course. And in particular, Gvir, a balabos, came to Reb Leizer Gordon. He came because he's looking for a chosson for his daughter, and he wants the Rosh Yeshiva to point out the best bochur. The gvir said, I can afford it, I have the money, and therefore I'd like to have the best bochur to become a chosson for my daughter. And therefore he is approaching the Rosh Yeshiva, Reb Leizer Gordon, that he should tell him which bochur, lemaaseh, is one that is the most outstanding of all the talmidim. Looking around the beis medrash, agav, the gvir sees a certain bochur that seems to learn with such a bren, with a gevaldige cheishek. So he pointed at bochur and he asked the Rosh Yeshiva, he asked Reb Leizer Gordon, he says, Who is that bochur over there? Very, very impressive bochur. And Reb Leizer Gordon said, Oh, that bochur? He happens to be my ben yochid. He happens to be my only son. The gvir was able to be mechaven to find out, and mamash to recognize without knowing. He recognized, Oh, that's Rosh Yeshiva's ben yochid. As he continued to look around the beis medrash, he sees a second bochur, also very, very impressive. And he asked the Rosh Yeshiva, he says, And who is this bochur? And the Rosh Yeshiva said, Oh, that bochur? He's my ben yochid. He's mamash my ben yochid. Couldn't believe it. He was mechaven two individual bochurim, has no idea who they were, but merely pointing them out, he happened to be mechaven. Each one happens to be graded Rosh Yeshiva's ben yochid. And then he sees a third bochur, also very impressive. And here again he asked the Rosh Yeshiva, And what about this bochur over there? And Rosh Yeshiva, Reb Leizer Gordon, said, Oh, that bochur is my ben yochid. It turns out that the shayches that Rosh Yeshiva had with each talmid, that his eyes each talmid was mamish like it would be like his ben yochid. He did not treat them all in one lump sum of having many talmidim just together, one, two, three, four. But every talmid had a special place in his heart, ki'ilu he would be his only talmid. He would give each talmid his undivided attention and all of his koiches and all of his talent and all of his kishrones, he would give to that talmid, ki'ilu mamish that is his ben yochid, tzelem Elokim, to the kollel man. Now that you want to be a rebbe, you want to be a maggid shiur for talmidim, make sure that you develop an ahavah and a love and a kesher to each talmid, that each talmid would be considered to be like your ben yochid. That is the success of a maggid shiur, and that is the way that you're going to have hatzlachah. Because the more ahavah that you are able to transmit, when a talmid perceives that there is an ahavah, there is a love, that the rebbe has a care for him, that the rebbe has an interest and a love for him, he can realize that is the single most greatest, greatest feature that will allow a talmid to be matzliach and give him the motivation to be matzliach. That, in fact, rabosai, that was what Reb Aharon was. Each talmid that he had, he did not take for granted, but each talmid in his eyes was mamish like a ben yochid.

Yad many, many rabboisai, many, many, many ben yochids. Ze a gevaldige losson, a gevaldige voyd, not only to his very, very choshuve mishpocheh, but to the entire, entire Queens community. And furthermore, klal Yisroel lost someone who was really in the prime of his life, would continue to grow more and more and make tremendous contributions on the world scene and in the Torah world. Avad an avaded is appropriate here, the words again of R' Meir Shapiro, Ki mide dabri boi, zocher es karenu oid. I can only remember and only mention the fact that we lost the oid. How much more he could have done, how much more he could have achieved. Ribono Shel Olam, that Klal Yisroel should be zoche from now on only to simchas in Klal Yisroel. And we ask you, Rabbeinu, again, we make a shliach tzibbur, as I mentioned, the levayah, to act to intercede at the kisei hakavod, shray ois by the kisei hakavod, the HaKadosh Baruch Hu's rachmanus on all of Klal Yisroel, limnoa mashchis megeifah mealeinu u'mikol ama Beis Yisroel, to simcha v'nachas, shefa bracha v'hatzlacha, b'rius, gezunt, bimheirah b'yameinu, amen. It's very difficult to talk about Hagaon HaRav Valkin, zecher tzaddik v'kadosh livracha. I met HaRav Valkin about five, six years ago. I spoke with him divrei Torah. I saw he was a great talmid chacham. And— He was a leader, leader in the Bucharis communities. He used to teach them Torah, to give shiurim, to be posek halachot. Every question they asked him, he knew the halachot of Sephardim, especially halachot of Sephardim. He used to learn from the books of the rabbis, the Sephardim rabbis. He used to follow my father, Chacham Ovadia Yosef, Zecher Tzadik V'Kadosh Livracha. He used to follow his piskei halachot. Great talmid chacham, and working very hard all the time, working for the people, not for himself. He sacrificed himself to the people, to be posek halachot. And now we lost him. When I heard what happened, I was shocked. I was crying. Big talmid chacham, ki mipnei hara'ah ne'esaf hatzadik. Hashem takes the tzaddikim first. The Gemara says, Masechet Bava Kama, before Hashem takes the tzaddikim. So we have now to think, first of all, what we will do without him. It will be very difficult for the Bucharis communities, all the people that he used to work for them. He used to be posek halachot, to teach them. He was a leader of the people. And now, many people will not have any address to ask questions, to know halachot. But now, when we are talking about him, we are not only talking about how good he was. I want people to think what he did. Something he did, many people can do themselves. Hagaon Harav Balkin was mezakeh harabim. It means the main target at his life was to teach people, to teach Torah, to be part of the Torah. He was working for Chazak organization that, under the leadership of my dear friend, Harav Ilan Meirov, shlita. So he was part of Chazak. Chazak worked and working until now, Baruch Hashem, and they will continue for kiruv, to bring people to Torah, to yirat Shamayim, to bring children to Jewish schools. And all the time he was part of it. So he got big, big zikui harabim. He had it.

Baruch Hashem. We have to know when the day will come that we will go to Hashem, everyone, be'ezrat Hashem, all of us will have long life, but the day will come. Once we will die, and we will have to go to report to Hashem what we did. According to the Mekubalim, Chovat HaLevavot also wrote it. The top, top mitzvah we can do, it's zikui harabim. Chovat HaLevavot says that if people would know what big, what great is the reward of zikui harabim, people would run after it all of their life. Agaon Rav Balkin used to do that. He was running all of his life after zikui harabim. We have to learn from him. We need zechut. Nobody knows when he will die. Even Agaon Rav Balkin, no one thought he will die. He was young. Suddenly he got the virus and he died. So everyone has to think, I have to take the opportunity I have now to ra, yirat shamayim and zikui harabim, the most important thing. So we have to learn from that, zikui harabim, especially the people that connected to the Bucharian communities. Everyone has to think: he has family, he has neighbors, he has friends, that their children, chas v'shalom, they are not in Jewish school. He has to convince them to change it, to support them to do that. Anyone who can do anything to bring people to Torah, to yirat Shamayim, to shiurei Torah, synagogues, Torah classes, it's very, very important. This is the biggest zechut we can have for next world. And the Gaon of Vilkin, he got it. Hashem took him. Usually tzaddikim, they are kaparah for all the generation. Kaparah. But the kaparah can be if we know how to make the kaparah. An example: if someone brings kaparah to Beit HaMikdash, he has to confess. He has to be better, to make decisions to change. So Hashem took him. He kaparah for all of us. Tzaddik. But he can be kaparah only if we become better. The kaparah will be good. If chas v'shalom we continue the same, the kaparah will be for zero, for nothing. So, be'ezrat Hashem, all of us, we will accept to be better, to worship Hashem better, and to make zikui harabim. And be'ezrat Hashem, soon we will see Mashiach Tzidkeinu, geulah shleimah, techiyat hameitim, bimheirah b'yameinu, amen. I want to be makdim that I'm not worthy to give divrei halachah. I'm not really to say a hesped, as I choshuve talmid chochom, talmid chochom muflag like a baron, that gevaldige marbitz Torah, rosh yeshiva, rosh hakohol. It says in the pasuk, Hatzaddik avad v'ein ish sam al lev. It is a chiyuv to be meisim al lev when we lose a tzaddik, and in that bechinah I will say a few words. Shetzadik avad v'ein ish sam al lev, ואנשי חסד נאספים באין מבין, כי מפני הרעה נאסף הצדיק. Reb Baron is given. He was, his whole life, I remember him as a young bochur, he was a gevaldige ilui, and every year he shteig weiter and weiter, became a riesige talmid chochom, a gevaldige marbitz Torah, a great rosh yeshiva. We should know that Chazal tell us the aveidah of a talmid chochom is the greatest tzaarah for Klal Yisroel. Shed'vovdo chochmas chachamov u'binas nevonim nisdarta, and the pasuk says, hafleh vafeleh, that the haflaah...

Laveided or shivas hatzalim, which the Baal brings down, that the greatest tragedy for Klal Yisroel is that the Boelam takes away from us talmidei chachomim and gedolei Torah. The Baron was a gadol baTorah, and besides being a gadol baTorah in his own right, he was a tremendous baal tzedakah. He was a gevaldige, gevaldige baal tzedakah, kol yamav, many, many years, b'mesirus nefesh, gadol meod. Four matan Torah, the Boelam came to Klal Yisroel, and the Boelam told Klal Yisroel, Vikidashtem hayom u'machar. So the Beis Elokim says, what is the tzivui of Vikidashtem hayom u'machar? Says the Beis Elokim that the Boelam told the Klal Yisroel that before he gives them the Torah, there has to be a kiddush hanefesh. Ki inyan Vikidashtem hayom u'machar hu kiddush hanefesh, v'taharah al yedei midos hagufniyos. People have middos ra'os, people have middos of gufniyos, gufniyusdike middos, taavos hamtzoynos, and kedei to be mekabel the Torah, one needs kiddush hanefesh. And the Boelam said that the Bnei Yisroel were Mitzrayim, they needed a gevaldige kiddush hanefesh, Vikidashtem hayom u'machar, to purify themselves and to have gevaldige middos tovos. They weren't able to do it in two days, and we know that Klal Yisroel was zocheh b'shas matan Torah to porach nishmosam. And what is the inyan of the porach nishmosam? Says the Beis Elokim, the world was mezachech Klal Yisroel. K'sheyotzu nishmosam, v'shmo yikorei laShem, v'hechziro lahem zeharu nekiyah, b'oifen shelo tidbak bo shemetz me'otzam hatrunos hara'os. To be able to be mekabel the Torah, one has to be pure. His middos have to be middos me'ulos, b'yoser, middos tovos. The Rabbeinu Yonah says, mein derech eretz ein Torah; ein haTorah shoreh ela b'guf shel midos tovos. And Reb Baruch, the Tzadik Livracha, was one that was not only a gadol baTorah, but he was mezachech his middos. Everybody knew him for his middos tovos, his caring for each and every one of the people that he knew or he didn't know. He was a middike Yid, that he was a meitiv. His whole life he was meitiv to other people. He was sensitive to other people's feelings, and he was a Yid that worked on his middos. He came from gevaldige zechus avos, we say zakus avos. He came from the Beis Aharon, was yadua from the geshikte gedolim that were the mechabed of the Beis Aharon, made money for him, Choshen Aharon. And he was an einikel, an ureneikel, from a gevaldige gezef, talmidei chachomim, rabbonim, and he himself was a gevaldige bar Uryana bar Avin. He had gevaldige zechus avos, and he had, we say, zakus avos, purification of the avos hakedoshim that he had, and he himself, he purified himself with gevaldige middos tovos. The emesdike talmid chochom has to be muchta with middos tovos. It's a shaychus to be an emesdike talmid chochom without middos tovos, and that was Hagaon Reb Baruch. He was from the yechidei hador, the gevaldike ma'arbitz Torah, as we said before, he was a ma'arbitz Torah b'mesirus nefesh. He didn't have any day. It says in Chazal, meisim leilos kayamim. Not only was a meisim leilos kayamim in his own limud haTorah, he was a meisim leilos kayamim in his habatzas Torah. He could come to him in the middle of the night, and he would give zich up with talmidim, give of himself. It wasn't easy from Lakewood to Queens is a vaiter mahalach, is a long mahalach, and his mesirus nefesh and his mesirus to his talmidim was half of a pele. The Meshech Chochmah brings in his sefer, the Mei Simchah says that it was the baal Meshech Chochmah says a gevaldige zach in Parshas Bechukosai. He says that this gevaldige madreges in habatzas Torah, but the greatest madreigah in habatzas Torah, he says, mi she'oseh mif'alim lishmah amei ha'aretz talmidei chachamim. He's ma'arbitz Torah among a kehillah that has no shaychus to Torah, that are not talmidei chachamim, and he makes them talmidei chachamim. La'asis anashim talmudiyim, takes people and he makes them lomdei Torah, lomdei Talmud.

He says the schar of this person is gadol ad ki amru, im toitzei yokam mizoel kefi siyah. The pasuk says in Yirmiyah, and his schar is yugbal like a schar. He says in all of the Rabbanan, they were able to see the schar. The schar was bemuchash. Uvelochei motzel stakule, they could look in the kvarim, they could see the schar levad, beguhorka de-Rab Chiya. It says that the Gemara brings in Bava Metzia, Rav Shlokish haya metzayein mata de-Rabbanan. He was metzayein the mata de-Rabbanan, ki mata lemalte de-Rav Chiya, came to the place, the matzeivah of Rav Chiya, ilama minei, he couldn't find it. So he had a chlishas hadaas. Why couldn't he find it? So, Boine shel olam, loi papalti bTorah kemoisoi. I was a gevaldige talmid chacham, I was mefalpel in Torah just like Rav Chiya. Came out a bas kol, and the bas kol said, Torah kemoisoi palpalta. You were mefalpel in Torah like Rav Chiya, or bTorah kemoisoi loi rigbatzta. You weren't mearbit Torah like Rav Chiya. Keivan d'meis Rav Chiya, Rav Chanina v'Rav Chiya. Amar lei Rav Chanina l'Rav Chiya, ba'ei dikomanzis, mishtakach Torah miYisrael, madanu mipapulei. Amar lei Rav Chiya l'Rav Chanina, ba'ei dikomanzis, d'ovda Torah d'tishtakach miYisrael. He was moser nefesh. The Gemara speaks about the gevaldige mesirus nefesh that Rav Chiya had. He did things that were not pasuk for a tana eloki to do. He did only to be mearbit Torah, to bring Yidden to Torah, and that was the avodah, avodah of— The Baron, Zecher Tzadik Livracha, he was a rosh yeshiva, not a rosh yeshiva of people that have a shaychus to Torah. He went to a kehillah that had really not so much connection, not so much shaychus to Torah. He made them talmidei chachamim. He learned with them. He learned with them Torah. He put into them yiras Shamayim, and l'gvaldik, l'gvaldik mesirus nefesh. But das teitch, that's the greatest form of chabatzes Torah, is this, that he was oisek in years and years in this mesirus nefesh, in this chabatzes Torah. It says in the pasuk, Yofi yafisa mibnei adam, hutzak chein b'sifseicha, pasuk in Tehillim. And the Medrash says that this pasuk is going on Avraham Avinu. Hu yofyafisa mibnei adam, says in the Medrash that Avraham Avinu is yofe. He's more beautiful than the children of Adam Harishon. The children of Adam Harishon were Sheis, Kayin, Mahalalel, Yered, Chanoch. We're talking about Shem, Ever, Lemach, Noach u'vanav. We're talking about tzaddikim, tzaddikim yisod olam. But Avraham Avinu is yofyafisa mibnei adam. L'choira kasha, we don't measure yofi. Sheker hachen v'hevel hayofi. We measure gadlus in Torah. We measure yiras Shamayim. Why is the pasuk telling us, the Malach is saying that Avraham Avinu, who is yofyafisa mibnei adam, is more beautiful? We're talking about yofi. No, duchta d'pshat is, there's a yofi in the inyan of tzelem Elokim. Tzelem Elokim is beautiful, but there's a greater yofi. Banim atem laShem Elokeichem, Klal Yisrael are banim laShem, the children of the Borei Olam. And in every child, a child looks like his father, some more, some less, but a child looks like his father. In a Yid, we have to see the ba'olam in every Yid. There's some Yid that we see very clearly. This Yid is a ben laMakom, he's a son. The ba'olam is seen in him, and that was Avraham. He was meshamed himself. There's a mitzvah of boi sidbok. There's a mitzvah to be doimeh to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Havei domeh loi, havei domeh loi in all aspects, in middos tovos, in maasim tovim, in limud haTorah, in mesirus for others, that others should be able to learn Torah. That's havei domeh loi. The maila of Avraham Avinu was that Avraham Avinu gave his life for others. ישתבח, ohev al habriyos, k'Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu, luda ba'olam was makir es HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and he went over, ir me'dina l'mdina, with gevaldike mesirus nefesh. He went all over to mefarsim the shem Hashem. That was Avraham Avinu. Yofyaso bnei adam is Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu, the ba'olam wants we should all be makir HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and the avodah of Avraham Avinu, havei domeh loi. He was doimeh to HaKadosh Baruch Hu in that aspect, that he gave away everything, only that we should have hakaras habo...

And that was the life, the life of a gevaldike life of Kiddush Hashem, to mekadesh the Borei Olam in mesiras nefesh. He gave away his life for HaKadosh Baruch Hu. He gave his life for the Torah HaKedoshah. And eibishter should bench him, he should be gedolim, tzaddikim, misrasim yoser mechayeihem. He has a gevaldige koach, and be'ezras Hashem, the kehillah, they put in so much avodah, so much mesiras nefesh, u'levadai flourish, u'levadai bematzliach. And he should be a melitz yosher for his chashuve rebbetzin, that she has such a great chelek in everything he did, all of the groyse peulos, all of the gevaldike peulos of Torah, yiras Shamayim, habatzas Torah. She has a tremendous chelek in that mesiras nefesh, in that gevaldike avodas Hashem, in that Kiddush Hashem. The eibishter should bench him, she should be a melitz yosher for his chashuve, chashuve rebbetzin, chashuve children should go b'darko, and we should be zocheh shebiyah melitz yosher for us, chashuve tzibur, was part of the Lakewood kehillah, should be a melitz yosher for Ganz Klal Yisroel. He loved every Yid with his whole heart, should be a melitz yosher, and the eibishter should be meisa b'korov mamash the tzaar me'aleinu. We should be zocheh to yeshuas Hashem, and we should be zocheh to biyas haMashiach bimheirah v'yameinu, bila hamaves lanetzach, u'machah Hashem dimah me'al kol panim, amen v'amen. Brachot. Yigra d'hespeid d'diluyei. The reward of a hesped, the fruit of the hesped is to raise your voice. Haramat kol, b'vchi v'hesped. חכמים מקשירים. ... בשבת, ... ... זה רש״י, ... הברכות, ... חכמים מקשירים. Chacham derat dafka kasher, v'kasher lav dafka chacham. Here both. Chachamim and k'sheirim. What is this Torah, this title of kasher? My father, the Chofetz Chaim, would always say: The Gemara also in Brachos says, נאמר ברית במלח, ונאמר ברית ביסורין, pain. מה המלח ממתקת הבשר, אף היסורין ממרקין עוונותיו של אדם. The salt makes the meat edible. The purpose of yisurim is also to make the person kasher. What is the likening? Meat has liquid, juices that are poison. You have to get rid of it. So in this, you have to be moleach, you have to salt the meat in order to make it edible, to take out all the bad components. The same thing a person. בלי מוסר, יש מידות רעות. For that Chazal made yisurim. Yisurim refines the person and makes the person edible, available, and kosher for everybody. If somebody wants to put it very concisely. This valley of pain that we call life. Aaron was a person that had a lot of melachah in him. If you find him, he made him adam kasher, not רק talmid chacham, chachamim ... The pain, the suffering, the neglect, the disappointment that he had. This made his Torah very unique. Lachen Chazal always tell us, Chacham shemet, ein lo תמורה. He has no replacement. Who does have a replacement? But there is special, a special uniqueness in every chacham that is irreplaceable. Aaron was a person whose Torah was very unique, very kind, very tender, very geshmak, as they say in Yiddish. And this is something that we cannot find any replacement. ... haspedoi, deha'adam kayam, ... be inspired. That's pshat. Another pshat, actually we can say, ha'adam kayam, inspire me. Whoever says one of the ...

Why? Why? Give me the ability to get inspired, to get heated up. I'll be able to help you. Here, a person is restrained. A person has the shackles of a ... The ma'alah, when the verse calls the ma'alah, he is unrestrained. He has the ability to help, to do things that he could not do here. Here, he's limited in a certain way. ... he's unrestrained. He can help a lot more ... And therefore you find many times yeshivot, most of the people, after their dear ones departed, they had tremendous aliyah and had tremendous ... Everyone came to greet you. ... They all came to accept you, to greet you. Over there, where you are, you have the ability to help your family, to help everybody, your wonderful wife Yaffa, your wonderful children. They all need you more than ever. ... Here, you are moved out. You're restrained, shackled over there ... Chazal tell us in ... Kohelet, af chochmascha amdah li, vechavalin demedrashin devarim mimeni. Torah shelamadti be'af, Torah shelai, learned under dire circumstances. This is the Torah that stood by. David HaMelech was satisfied with the tremendous masmid, as we see in Sefer Tehillim. He learned in the middle of the night, all night. Wherever he went, he learned, in melachim, wherever he was. Any time and anywhere, David HaMelech learned. However, David HaMelech's state, shlomo hamelech, af chochmascha amdah li, Kohelet. This is the Torah that stood by for me. When a person learns out of yissurim, out of tzaar, out of frustration, out of disappointment, out of social neglect, this Torah omitted law has the ability to bring him to places where another Torah... How many yissurim of our own. How many. V'lamadta tamid in chiyuch, with a smile, with a good heart, with a yishmach heart, you are irresistible. And we ask of you, ... do what you were not able to do here. Bring bracha, shidduchim, parnasa, good health for your family, for your kehilla, and we will never forget you, never, never. You are a dugma of a classic combination of chacham, baal middot, baal kasher, a good mensch, a visser mensch, a geshmaker mensch. A year means a good person, a tender person, a very sincere and a very dear person. The years that we spent together are unforgettable. Years that we saw what Torah makes conversion, and we ask you to be, Mr. Shamsham. When I was sitting shiva on my mother, came to be menachem the chacham Amarano Harav Avadia, and he once sat down next to me and he said two words of comfort, which I want to apply. He said the following: Hamakom yenachem etchem. Why do we use that word, that terminology, hamakom? The chacham Avadia said, when you see where the neshama is now in Gan Eden, that is the nechama. Hamakom, atah roeh eifo shehamakom shel haneshama. I say the same by you, Avraham. Here, it wasn't easy, but where you are, you're safe, you're relaxed, you're sound, you're comfortable. Hamakom shetanimtza sham, zeh hanechama shelanu. Finally, you came to a place where you have peace of mind. The apriciation of being mezakeh the rest of the family to have bracha, yeshua, and nechama.

I’m trying to put to the … and I’m not really … I carry your burden. It’s … a burden unprecedented. But I want you to know that the whole time we always, always part, … parts of the family, and we … Azan, King, such a son, one in a million. He was zoche to bring to the world and to develop such a talmid chacham, such an example, such a dugma of Torah, middot, and yirat Shamayim, a makom ye’achem etchem, lo tosifu l’da’avon. It is so hard to speak about a gaon and tzaddik, Rabbi Aaron Volkin, zecher tzaddik v’kadosh livracha, who passed away and went up to heaven in such a stormy way, in the middle of this pandemic situation that’s washing the world in the past couple months. Gaon Aaron Volkin came from a very chashuv family. His great-grandfather was a great posek, well accepted by the greatest rabbanim of his generation and the rabbanim that came after. Also Maran, Rabbeinu Ovadia Yosef, alav hashalom, is quoting from Gaon zekan haAharon tens of times throughout Yabia Omer. I had the zechut to know Aaron and his father, sheyarich yamim b’tov. Hagaon Rabbi Moshe Wolkin was a member in the bedin in Queens. I had the privilege to meet and get to know his uncle, Hagaon Rabbi Chaim Wolkin, mashgiach in Yeshivat Ateret Yisrael in Yerushalayim. Very chashuv family. But Rabbi Baron himself, he was a special man, a great man, adam gadol. He was a great talmid chacham. He served as a rosh yeshiva in Queens for many, many years, and his inspiration and his Torah was growing so much in Queens. He had talmidim, he had students that they became themselves great talmidei chachamim. Today they're serving as rabbis and leaders in the community, in the Bukharian community, in Queens and other places. I had the zechut to learn with some of them, and I saw the level of learning. Rabbi Baron was such a special rosh yeshiva that brought his talmidim to a very high level of learning, very high level of understanding. Baruch Hashem, today they're serving the community, the Bukharian community, and uplifting the community. His words of Torah is continuing in the community through his talmidim. Ahavat Yisrael of Hagaon HaTzadik Rabbi Aharon Wolkin was remarkable. Unbelievable ahava, love to every fellow Jew. The handshake of Abi Aron, if you felt, if you got a handshake from Abi Aron, you felt the love, you felt the warmth. His heart was a fire of love to every fellow Jew. Always had the sweetest words of encouragement, complimenting everyone, uplifting everyone, inspiring everyone around him. Not only his talmidim that he was teaching every day, but also every person who got in contact with him. He was a rosh yeshiva, teaching talmidim and making them talmidei chachamim, but also he was a great mezakeh harabim. He gathered around him tens of baalei batim, great business people, who are very successful business people. But with his sweetness, with his kedushah, with his purity, with his love to Torah and love to every Jew, he managed to gather such large group of people around him to teach them Torah a few hours every day. Those baalei batim, they could have just gone to work like everyone else, or anymore.

Morning, but they were spending a few hours every day, from early in the morning till noontime, learning with Rabbi Aharon. And Rabbi Aharon knew how to suit the level of learning to each crowd. When he was learning with the baalei batim, behinat vayered Moshe min hahar el ha'am, he was talking to their level, suiting the divrei Torah, making it sweet and delicious in their mouth, ta'amu u're'u ki tov Hashem. When he was teaching the avreichim, when he was teaching the talmidim yeshiva, he was uplifting their level of learning to a very high level, to give them high skills of learning. I had the zechut to get to know Rabbi Aharon in the past couple of few years, and I was very inspired by his knowledge of Torah, by his ahavat Yisrael, by his chavivut to every person. But also, I was inspired by his anavah, his humbleness, his kavod to talmidei chachamim. We went together to visit, to meet with some Gedolei Yisrael, like Hagaon Rabbi David Feinstein, the son of Baal Igrot Moshe, HaRav Moshe Feinstein zatzal. We met with Hagaon Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, Rosh Yeshiva of Philadelphia. We met with the Satmar Rebbe in Williamsburg, with the Satmar Rebbe in Monroe. We met with Agon, Rabbi Israel Hoffenes, Baal Israel Vazmani, Baal Nishmat Shabbat, and a few other Gedolim. And to see him, the way he spoke to these Gedolei Israel, the anavah that he had, the hand that he had, the words that he used to speak with these Gedolei Israel, it was really inspiring. But also, I realized the special yachas, the special kavod, the special respect that Gedolei Israel had toward him. Not only as a son, Ben Amshet Kedoshim, as a son of great, great rabbanim, but also as a talmid chacham himself, as a great Rosh Yeshiva himself, as a great leader, which Rabban was really a great leader. He knew how to carry on his shoulder the community, how to lead and how to inspire the people, and especially for Irgun Hazak. Irgun Hazak, which is one of the greatest kiruv organizations in the United States of America, was led by Agon, Rabban Volkin. He was one of the leaders of this organization. He was sitting in the head of the organization, and his advisors, his good eitzah, his directions, his guidance, brought the organization to such a fruitful and successful result. Baruch Hashem, we can say, working together on the same project, we have saved hundreds, hundreds of children from shmad, totally shmad, and brought them back to Judaism. Rabban Agon Tzadik, Rabban Volkin, sacrificed his life and his... Quality time with his family for the Bucharian community. He was leaving his family every day, traveling from Lakewood to Queens to teach the Baalei Batim, to teach the talmidei chachamim, to serve as a rosh yeshiva, as a rosh kollel. In the past couple years, they rented an apartment for him in Queens. He used to leave his family on Sunday or Monday morning and go back only for Shabbat, Thursday evening or Friday morning. The last time we have met, that was the Sunday before Purim. Usually on Sunday he was not in Queens. We had a special event giving a smicha for some of the avreichim that did a nice portion of the iyun. So we asked for Mabaon to join us to this program, to be mechabed the maamad, and he said, for kavod haTorah, for this encouragement for these avreichim. He came a day earlier, so he left his family on a Sunday also, just to come and to give from his wisdom and from his kavod to the maamad. Sacrificed so much for the Bucharian community.

He adopted the Buchan community like they were his own family. And we can see the results: years of years of hard work, years of years of teaching Torah. Baruch Hashem, so many talmidei chachamim came from his investment teaching them Torah. I think the Buchan community should adopt his family today. He left behind him his wife and a large family, some of little kids with him. I think the Buchan community should adopt his family and do as much as possible to help them. ובעזרת השם הגאון הצדיק רבי אהרן וולקין is going to stand up in Shamayim in front of Kisei HaKavod, in front of Hashem, and pray, pray, daven for his family, pray for the Buchan community. He went up as a shaliach tzibbur to Shamayim, as a korban tzibbur. גדולה פטירתן של צדיקים יותר משריפת בית אלוקינו. There is no doubt that he stands in Shamayim and prays for Am Yisrael, prays for Klal Yisrael. יהי רצון שהקדוש ברוך הוא יאמר די לצרותינו, ויבטל גזרות קשות רעות מעלינו. אבינו שבשמים, קרע רוע גזר דיננו. אבינו שבשמים, כלה דבר וחרב ורעב ורעש ושבי וביזה ומשחית ומגפה ויצר הרע וחולאים רעים מבני בריתך. אבינו מלכנו, שלח רפואה שלמה לכל חולי עמך. יהי רצון שהקדוש ברוך הוא יחיש לגאולנו. V'tehei rachamecha harabim, tachpotz banu virtzenu, v'sechazena eineinu b'shuvcha l'Tzion b'rachamim, b'mheira b'yameinu, amen v'amen. I had a conversation yesterday with one of the people, shemayich yomim, that was very close to him, and he knew his seder hayom and seder halayla, which is an unbelievable way of living a life. And he wasn't healthy; he had medical inyonim. He was a choleh many years, and he ran such a seder hayom and seder halayla that's not shayach to understand how a person in his matzav was able to do that. That was koiches haneshama; it wasn't koiches haguf. The koach from ahavas haTorah and ahavas Yisroel, and his achrayus, v'ahavas haTorah. He didn't sleep at night. He would send in his shiurim b'ksav; they would get it, receive it by email or by fax, three, four in the morning. That's when they received his chiddushei Torah. He was mechadesh every day and every night, that he was horeved. He was yagea yomam valayla for many, many years. And I could say kol yamav. I remember as a young bochur, he was mechaber sefer as a young bochur. He was omel, yagea baTorah kol yamav. Yom omdo al daitoi, kemo zaken. He left his house in the morning. He had to be daven Shacharis in Queens, seven o'clock, I believe. He must have left 4:35 in the morning. Without sleeping, he drove to Queens, the Mirbitz Torah. He would daven seven o'clock in the morning, and the talmidim that didn't show up for davening, he would call them by phone after davening and leave them messages. I heard he left the brachos, he said the brachos on the phone to be me'orer them to daven brachos, to say it with kavanah. And myself, from a Mirbitz Torah many years, it never ever dawned on me that to shayach such a mesirus, such a mesirus nefesh, such a hiskashrus, such a hiskashrus and a mesirus to talmidim, the chiyus of talmidim. He would say shiurim, three or four shiurim a day. That was kollel, the bochrim, the Torah bochrim, yungelait, kollel yungelait, baalei batim. And the last few months, since the last year yahrzeit, he started saying a daf yomi shiur, and he had a hundred people every day, every morning, or whenever it was, for the daf yomi. Such a broad, broad hasogah of harbotzas haTorah. And he was a manhig of thousands of people, thousands of mishpachos, that he was considered their rosh yeshiva. They called him their rosh yeshiva. He had hashpa...

Hashpoe, he's mechazik thousands and thousands of Yidden, a heilige chelek of Klal Yisroel, bochurim, bochurei Yidden, that's a heilige choshuve chelek of Klal Yisroel, that he was considered there Rosh Yeshiva. Besides the other manhigim that they, Baruch Hashem, shlita, the Rav HaRoshi of them, shlita, and the other mashpiim, but he was called the Rosh Yeshiva. He was the Rosh Yeshiva. I had a conversation yesterday afternoon with a goyen, Rav Meir Kotel shlita, the Rosh Yeshiva of Merkaz Gevoha, who I think is familiar with the whole Olam HaTorah in America. I think, im ken azoi zogen, I'm allowed to say that, we can say that, and he knows thousands and thousands of Yungeleit, bnei Torah, talmidei chachomim, ba'alei batei Torah. And he said to me these words: Reb Baron was a gevaldige Yid. That means that in his experience of bnei Torah, he stands out. He stands out in his middos, in his ahavas haTorah, in his yiras Shamayim, and his Torah. He had a certain purity that stood out by him, stood out. He was doyeg. He worried for his talmidim, these thousands of talmidim that he had that looked up to him. He worried for them not only in their ruchniyus, but also in their gashmiyus. I heard yesterday from this person that gave me the information of the seder hachayim that very close to his petirah, un nebach, nebach, nebach. He collapsed. Nebach, nebach. And he left us very close, that a few hours before, or maybe even closer, he was busy raising money for the Yungerlait that should have a Yom Tov more b'harchava. Unbelievable. His ligan lernen, ligan chesed, and ahavas haTorah. I want to say over a Alter Rebbe in Telim, a loshon Alter Rebbe, take a couple of moments. He talks about chiddushei Torah. He was mechadesh Torah kol yomov, mechadesh Torah. Besides it, he was yagea baTorah, he was mechadesh Torah. I want to read over a few lines from the Alter Rebbe Kodesh in Telim. V'hu, ki kol talmid chacham, al yedei netiyas nafshei b'sharshei haTorah, l'maan she'osek bah yom valayla. He's planting and he's mashrich his neshama, his nefesh, in the Torah. What is that similar to? Ki mashkeh es nafsho l'hotzi peiros. That's watering his neshama, his nefesh, to be able to grow, to give out peiros, like a mashkeh ilan. And what are these peiros? What are these sweet peiros that comes out from this netiyah, from this hashko'ah, being mashkeh mayim through the hegia? What comes out? What are the peiros that come out? Hein ma shemechadesh chiddushim baTorah. Kol nefesh v'nefesh l'fi hamisyaches eileha. Every nefesh that's mechadesh Torah, that has a shaychus, there's a shaychus to the neshama. V'al kein, keldeios Hashem, d'Rabbeinu shlolam. Nechalek b'chol dor v'dor, haneshamos haruyos l'chadesh b'chol dor l'fi tzorech hador. The Eibishter sends down the neshamos in each dor with a gevaldige cheshbon, the tachlis ha'dor, which neshamos, which Torah is needed for the dor, the tzorech ha'dor. The Buchacher, a Yid needed his Torah, needed his chiddushei Torah, and the Eibishter sent him down with this achrayus, with this achrayus to mechadesh Torah, to me'arev Torah, to this chelek chashuv of Klal Yisroel. I don't want to me'arich any longer. I just want to say a little bit of chizuk to the family, to the mishpacha. It's chashuve rebbetzin, the Torah, wonderful children. I must say, they had a little bit shaychus in this inyan, to mesader this hesped, or hachrasha, with his son Pinchas, l'zayin gezunt, such a yakar. The Eibishter says, I'm not so familiar with the children. I attended all the bar mitzvahs, I believe, Baruch Hashem, because of the closeness that I had, many years, with his gevaldige rosh yeshiva, Reb Aharon, zichrono tzaddik livrachah. But he came across on the phone—we don't meet people now, the Eibishter helfen—but he came across on the phone, my dealing with him, with such eidelkeit, with such chashivus, with such a Torah, such a wonderful, wonderful bochur. And I hear from the close people.

That are close to me and were close to the Baron, l'havdil, Chaim and Chaim, that all of them, all the children, are very, very special. All the children are very, very, very special. And it's Rebbetzin, ... that stood to his side and was able to live with this, these conditions. Two nights a week he wasn't home; he stayed in Queens. And Yomim va'layla to be aduk and mekushar to Torah and the avodas haTorah and the chayim with talmidim. That's without her he couldn't have done it. He was a soft person, a soft person and a kind person. If his wife would be sovel, wouldn't be able to handle it, he wouldn't be able to do it, mitoch nefesh haTorah, wouldn't be able to do it. She gave him the courage, and she gave him the chovas hadaas to be able to lead such a life with a guf cholosh. I want to give a bracha, they should give her koach to be mamshich the chinuch habonim al the derech that he wanted. She was a shutaf, and she remains a shutaf, and she has to do his chelek also. Hagam is going to do his chelek, what he couldn't do over here, he's going to do over there. He's going to be mesader over there, Shatnez Shmaya, and shidduchim, and hatzlacha, b'gashmiyus u'beruchniyus. I want to also mention his wonderful parents, father and mother, ... They should give them koach to live through this, this gevaldige aveida, and his father should be able to, Reb Moshe shlita, should be able to be mamshich his avodas Hashem, that never stops learning, never stops learning. And I mentioned this about Levi, and I mentioned to him when I was menachem avel him, when he sat on shivah after Yontif, he didn't tell him that we were watching him, watching his koiches, his gezunt. And I spoke to him that he should be mamshich his Torah, his Torah, his Torah lishmah. And he holds up the world with his Torah. He should be mamshich the Eibishter's koach, and we should be zoche to a yeshuah gedolah. The Eibishter should be choilel us from this meitzer, from this tzarah, from this tzarah, we should see siyata dishmaya, that the yeshiva should open, and we should all go back to the Torah and avodah, and it should be a me'eiras yosher for his mishpachah, for all of us, and we should be zoche to the geulah shleimah bimheirah b'yameinu, amen. HaGaon Rav Aaron Walkin, zecher tzaddik livrachah. There are many, many things about the great tzaddik. He was rosh yeshiva, he was rav, he was posek, he was mashgiach, he was mashpia. He was many, many things. But there is something that was outstanding, that he was singular in. There's a pasuk in Koheles, Chochmas adam ta'ir panav. It is the man's wisdom that shines, that lights up his face. Wherever he went, wherever he learned, wherever he had a position, it was the shine of his face, it was the presence, it was the hadras panim that shined to everyone, that everyone was uplifted by, encouraged by, inspired by. That shine, all of us so miss. That created a vacuum in this world. When we heard of the petirah, some of the talmidim of the great Rav Walkin called me, and they were looking for nechamah. They didn't have a place for themselves. Some of the members of the shul of Rav Walkin called me. Some of his friends called me. They had no eitzah. They couldn't believe it, that that great tzaddik is no longer here with us in this world as we know. Of course, when a tzaddik leaves this world, chacham shemeis, it tells us in the Gemara in Shabbos, hakol kerovav. Everybody is his relative. Reb Yehoshua of Kutno asks a question: What does it mean, everybody is his relative? A person has only so many relatives. Reb Yehoshua of Kutno says that when a tzaddik leaves this world, everyone wants to prove that they had shayches, that they were close. Oh, I was closest with the Rav. I was closest with the Rosh Yeshiva. Oh no, I knew him. We knew each other. We're very close together. Everyone tries to say how close they were. I will say by Rav Wolkin, zecher tzaddik livracha, it was all true. No matter who wants to say that they were close to him, it's true, because he shared that with everybody. He shared it with his talmidim. He shared it with talmidos. He shared it with krovim. He shared it with a person that walked into the beis medrash for the very first time. He shared it with his choshuve mishpacha. Each and every member, they felt his closeness. So if—

You want to know a co-connection? It's true, Chazal say the exact words that are precise by Rav Wolkin. It's interesting, the great gaon, Rav Simcha Wasserman, zecher tzaddik livracha, said there are two lakes in Eretz Yisrael, two waterways: the Kinneret and the Yam HaMelech. The Kinneret is fresh; it's full of life in those waters. The Yam HaMelech is a salt lake. It has absolutely no life whatsoever. Says Rav Simcha, the Kinneret is a life-giving lake. It takes in water; it gives out water. However, the Yam HaMelech only takes in water. Rav Simcha says in life there are the nemers and there are the givers. There are the takers and there are the givers. Rav Wolkin was a giver. He was a giver, and he never stopped giving his entire life, no matter where he was, no matter which olam he was involved in. He was always giving and giving and giving ad klois hanefesh until he possibly couldn't give anymore, and he had to take a rest. The great tzaddik was such an anav that I think you and I, I'll be honest with you, I don't think we really realized who he was, the level that he was on because of his deep humility. V'anavim yirshu aretz. The humble should inherit the earth. The world was his because of his humility. We learn in the future, in techiyas hameisim, that it will be in the seder of the aleph-beis. But those who are the anavim, those that are humble, those that are blessed with humility, they will be first. They will be the ones that will jump the line and will be the first at techiyas hameisim. And indeed, we learn that the people that have anivus, they save the world. I want to tell you, the first time I came into the beis medrash, I was zoche to be there on Shabbos together with the great Rav. When I walked in, he recognized me. I don't know from where. Immediately he stood up. He hugged me. I didn't know him yet, and he hugged me. That's the skarvis. That's the closest he had to any Yid. He brought me up to the front of the shul, and he sat me down right next to the Aron Kodesh. Then I figured out that that was his seat in shul. I jumped up, and I said, Rebbe, this is your seat. I can't sit there. And he argued with me. He mamish argued with me that I should sit in his seat. Finally, I won, and I sat two seats down on a regular chair. The anivus of Rav Wolken, to give to somebody that walks in the beis medrash and says, Here, please sit in my seat. Honor he ran away from. A boreach min hakavod. He couldn't care less. He ran from it. How we didn't realize. If we would have realized, we would have put him on a chair and carried him in the air. We would have realized the tzaddik and the goin, and the unbelievable goin and chesed, how he loved everybody. We would realize the entire world should take an example from Rav Wolken, how unbelievable it is that the Torah was everything to him. Lulei sorascha shaashuai, az avadti be'onyi. If the Torah was not my chief delight, I would have perished in my affliction. Rav Wolken, he went in this world. He always had a sefer together with him. He never ever let it go. I remember when I came into the Chazak dinner, how wonderful it was. What a celebration of Torah. What a great celebration it was of bringing people closer, l'haviam shava shamayim to their Father in Heaven. When Rav Wolkin saw me, he jumped up from the table, he grabbed me, and he sat me down next to him. But the entire time, while people ate the appetizer, the main course, the dessert, I can tell you what Rav Wolkin did. He had a sefer. In every few minutes, he would get excited about something. He would bend over to me and want to talk and discuss a point in that sefer. That was the greatness of Rav Wolkin. He was shakua in the Yam HaTalmud. He was completely immersed in Torah. It didn't matter whether—

It was a child. It didn't matter whether it was his chavrusa. It didn't matter who it was, anybody that would be interested in learning, he gave himself over. That was his chiyus. That was his life. That was what gave him every second. It was the ruach. It was that spirit that kept him all the years. How difficult it is for us to understand that this great individual, the individual that had such a great love for Torah. I'll never forget, I was at the Dirshu siyum, and at the Dirshu siyum, Rav Wolkin was all the way at the other side of the dais, and I was sitting on the opposite side. As soon as I saw him, I ran over to him, and I begged him to please come and sit next to me, and he did. I never saw somebody so happy. Everyone was happy. Everyone rejoiced that night, but Rav Wolkin was dancing and he's singing. He had a smile that was perpetual the whole night because it was a celebration of Torah, Torah in such great ameilus. That defined great Rav Wolkin, the ameilus in Torah, and he never stopped the entire evening until he had to go. And when he went, he apologized to me that he can't stay, but he has to go home. What an individual. What a cheshek for Torah. What a cheshek for avodah. If you would ever see him in the middle of davening, even a pesukei d'zimra, if you would see him by pesukei d'zimra when most of us are just warming up, if you would hear him sing, you would hear him scream out, you would hear avodas hakodesh on the highest level, the level that you and I will strive for, the level that you and I work a whole lifetime in order to get to. And it's unreal. Once I know that Torah anytime carried a specific shiur of the great Rav Wolkin, and it was particularly instructional to other rabbanim. Torah Anytime broadcasts that throughout the entire world. Many, many people came over to me and they said that they heard the shiur. They knew that I knew him. They knew that we had a kesher together. How unbelievable it is that the words of the Rav. Permeated and went through so many people, touched their heart, touched their mind, and changed them for the better. It's very difficult. Matzdikei harabim kechochavim l'olam va'ed is a pasuk in Daniel. Those that give merit, those that teach righteousness to the multitudes, to the rabim, they're like stars forever in heaven. And they ask the question, why are they like stars? Why stars? Why not like malachim? Why not doimeh for other things? Why stars? My great Rebbe, Reb Simcha Wasserman, zicher tzaddik livracha, said, if you take a little child out at night and you show the child a star up in the heaven, and you say to the child, Could you tell me how big is the star? The child will say, Well, it's about as big as my hand. In truth, that star could be bigger than the planet that we live on, but we can't assess it. So too, says Reb Simcha, an adam gadol, we think he was this great or that great, but in truth, he was greater than the world that we live on. We can't assess it. We don't even know it. It is beyond our ability to assess the greatness of an adam gadol. The great Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin, Rabbi Yehoshua Leib, famous for all of his work, he and the Rebbetzin, with all the people that were yesomim, orphans in the world. In his house, he took in a little girl. A yesoma, a precious, precious orphan. One time it was, after the Rebbetzin gave her a bath, that the Rebbetzin was drying her hair, and when she was finished, the girl was crying. And Reb Yeshua Leib was upset. How can you see a little girl crying? So Reb Yeshua Leib went over to her and said, Maybe, is it possible the Rebbetzin was drying your hair and it was a little too rough? The girl said, No, no, Rebbe. The Rebbetzin dries my hair even softer and gentler.

than my own mother used to do. But there is one thing. When my mother used to finish drying my hair, she would bend over and give me a little kiss on my head. And that kiss I miss greatly. Out of all the things in the world, out of all the things that Rav Wolken stood for and that we will miss, all the Torah, all the guidance, all the friendship, everything in the world, I will tell you what we're going to miss the most: that gentle kiss from such a giant, from an adam gadol. Tezichro baruch. This is the greatest rule of the Torah, the number one rule in the Torah is, V'ahavta l'reacha kamocha. That klal gadol means there's got to be a klal katan. And what is the klal katan? Kedoshim toyu. What made the Rosh Yeshiva zatzal so unique... 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 were his own child. My Rebbe, Rabbi Aaron Walkin zatzal, had such a mastery over so much of the Torah. Our Rebbe's yediot baTorah was so vast. There was no topic in kol haTorah kula 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, Rabbi 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 may have, because there's no heart like the Jewish heart. There's nothing like Yisrael, mi k'amcha Yisrael, goy echad b'aretz. We are one nation b'aretz. He was always, always positive and happy to teach us. Anything he taught, Chumash, Gemara, Halacha, 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 mesirus 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, 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...

Real Ahavat Israel. In front of the Torah, he used to cry. He used to cry on behalf of Klal Israel. 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. 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. Hearts and our memories. And we long to see you, בעזרת השם, soon when Mashiach comes. We've come together to give the kavod acharon to a Yid nefesh, adam choshuv, ish chai rav pe'alim, halevadike person, a man of many actions, many things, Rav Aharon Falken zecher tzaddik livracha. He stands somewhat with trepidation, as much as it's a ma'amid l'kavod shel meis, chas v'shalom, there's a chisaron. We're not all together; it's not an asifah. We're not together in one place to be mechabed the kavod acharon to this niftar. It's choshev a niftar. Feeling we have is that so much lacking in the kavod hameis. And emes, this entire mageifah was gorem chisarones in kavod hameis. It gives us some sense of תנחומין, is the words of the Shevet Mussar in the sefer Chut Shel Chesed, in Parshas Matos. He tells us on the pasuk where it says, Vatiah hamageifah b'daas Hashem. It says, Vatiah hamageifah b'daas Hashem, after a mageifah, because what a mageifah causes is certain richuk, a sense of contamination. People stay away from the niftarim after the mageifah.

Because of the kaporah it makes, Baruch Hashem, there's a certain hiskarvus that a person niftar with a mageifah, kedosh Boruch Hu says the shivah tzmuser. Here also, I feel, insofar that there's somewhat a chisaron, somewhat a lessening of the kvod hameis in this asifah, this strange asifah, there should be a zechusoi, not a fakert. Interestingly enough, the zeidah of the niftar, Reb Aharon Walkin, the beis aharon, had a number of speeches that he said for people niftarim, and it's printed in the sefer Metzach Aharon. And there he has a hesped, he says about a Yid, Reb Leib Mikelem, who was niftar in tof-reish-nun-daled from the cholera outbreak, and he speaks about the misa that comes from a mageifah. Mishtolezech an interesting shailah. The Gemara tells us, omru Rebbi Yehoshua ben Levi, lo nivru re'amim ela lifshot akmumi shebalev. The tachlis of re'amim, the clap of thunder, was created to be poshet, to straighten out the krumkeit that lies in the person's heart, to shanemer, v'alkim asah sheyirau milefanav. And the Tesant, he was misboinen on the fact that HaKadosh Boruch Hu sends certain things that tells us a message to be masalik the akmumiyus and the akmumiyus shebalev. He asks the shailah, he says, havi shluchei d'Rabmokoi. There's a lot of shluchim that Rachmana that can do the same thing, give us the message, many mazikim that HaKadosh Boruch Hu created, bidei nechoshim, srafim v'akravim, bidei dubim v'aryos. There are many different types of mazikin that HaKadosh Boruch Hu could get us scared as well. He goes on and says an interesting distinction, and he says, when it comes to other mazikin, it happens and it's over. Not much time beforehand, not much time afterwards. It's there, it's shocking b'shaas maaseh, but it's not something to give us much of a warning. He says, Ra'omin comes with ominous clouds. There's a storm brewing. It's dark, choshech onan va'arafel, a lot of things. It seems scary. There's threatening weather, and then the clap of thunder comes and does the hezek that it does. Says he, our emunah shebalev, that emunah shebalev needs the fact that there's a massive klali. He also explains that mageifah, such as the cholera at the time, or we speak about now the coronavirus, rachmana litzlan, is something which we say, it's there as a matzav. It instills fear. We dread it. A sense of panic ensues. That's something HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, listen to me. That's what I'm trying to send you. That's the message I want to tell you. Bi'ikar, that emunah shebalev. He says the mageifah is that at times, though, in such a matzav of choshech, onan va'arafel, to have the loss of someone who was such a beacon of light. Reb Aharon was poshut a ray of light. I met him many times. Our families were close, Baruch Hashem, close to the Kaminetzkys, felt close to the Valkins, bichlaliyus. We would talk, we'd sit down at farbreng, we met at simchas and other places, always with a smile, always with a positive outlook, never with a negative word. He was machshiv et tzelem Eloki. And anyone he met walked away feeling a sense of embrace. He took him in, took him into his life. How many people changed their lives, poshut with a chance encounter with Reb Aharon. He never judged. He understood the tzelem Eloki, he understood the ma'alah. Not one negative word was heard from his mouth. A gut vort, a vort fun chizuk. He was always mechazek others. He exuded chizuk for others. Dos iz geven di metzius zayneh. We lose in this dark matzav, in the matzav of choshech, onan va'arafel, to have this beacon of light that gives us the... To have the menacheshech, to lose his tooth, in other words, that's another klap. Tosant, the Baron, the Baron Valkin, the sefer, the Metzacher, that same hesped, shtelt zich another shtel. Chazal tell us, Talmid chacham shemeis, ein anu motzin temuraso. Talmid chacham shemeis, ein anu motzin temuraso. And he says, in Chazal you find terminology sometimes chacham, sometimes talmid chacham. And he asks, why here where Chazal madgish the fact talmid chacham shemeis, wouldn't chacham been sufficient? Chacham shemeis. A chacham shemeis, ein anu motzin temuraso. And furthermore, says he, ein anu motzin temuraso, we do not find this temurah. What is that supposed to mean? Could have said, talmid chacham or chacham shemeis, ein lo temurah. There's no exchange to chacham shemeis. Says the Baron, and says the Baron in the sefer, the Beis Aharon, zogt der azoi: There are two types of talmidei chachamim. There's the chacham where the talmid isn't the appellation that he has because he's a person who does not mekabel moras me'acherim. He has a position, a choshev, a rav of a city. Rav of a city, at that point we call him a chacham. The talmid chacham seems to connote something which is called kabbalas smorus. Here in a city, it's asrei d'mar. He is the rav of that city. He is the chacham. There's another talmid chacham that doesn't—

That's the type of position. That's a talmid chacham. It's the person, it's the persona. It's not the position that defines him. He's a person, he's a talmid chacham in growth mode, always looking for more, always living for more. That's a talmid chacham. Says the Beis Aharon, Chacham shemeis. If it's a chacham, where it's asrei d'mar, he has a gibisa ma'amid, the ma'amid warrants a replacement, and the ma'amid will get a replacement. He says, Chacham shemeis, we can find תמורתו. It's going to happen. It has to happen. It'll have, מצד המעמיד itself, it needs to happen. Talmid chacham shemeis, the individual, the unique individual, that personality for who he is, if he's not there, it's not the ma'amid that defines him. Reb Baruch Zechatzadik Livracha was a person, no ma'amid defined him. Ashul, chevra, kiruv, shiurim, chazak, all the midos hachin, but that wasn't what defined him. He was that talmid chacham. Like I said before, the ish chai Rav Paalim, a lebedike, the personality, the persona was always there, the shmeichel, that lichtige kuk. Whenever we met, it was divrei Torah that I said, it was always oisn peiros. I walked away ibergechasedishmuz, a zeifel gezogt, a zeifel divrei chizuk in the divrei Torah. He lived with it. That's what defined who he was. He was a talmid chacham. So the chacham shemeis, לפעמים מוצאין תמורתו. Talmid chacham shemeis, אין אנו מוצאין תמורתו. What's the ein anu? It says it's pertaining to ourselves. Chacham shemeis, יש לו תמורה. The ma'amid will have to have something in its place. Talmid chacham shemeis, אין אנו מוצאין תמורתו. We, that had so much from him, he left such an effect on us. It was in. He עסקed in all words, the shul that he built, the matzov that he made, ein onu motzin timraso. We could look, we won't find that tmurah, that beacon of light, that ish chay rav Paalim is difficult to find. He lived with that. It's something he leaves behind to us. The legacy is still there. We have the achrayus to hold on to it. Pasuk says, the famous pasuk oft quoted, V'heispalel Elokim, u'vila Maves lanetzach, u'macha Hashem Elokim dimah me'al kol panim, v'cherpas amo yasir me'al kol ha'aretz ki Hashem diber. This is the pasuk in Yeshayahu Hanavi. He says this pasuk, u'vila Maves lanetzach, it's a tefillah. U'macha Hashem Elokim dimah me'al kol panim is byter a tefillah. V'cherpas amo yasir me'al kol ha'aretz al geveten, ki Hashem diber, because it's a time that HaKadosh Baruch Hu speaks. Rabosai, we're living at the point of re'omim. It's a speech HaKadosh Baruch Hu speaks to us. It's a matzav we're being spoken to. Of course, yeda zeh is a me'orer. Or b'matzav, klal Yisrael, the Mesillas Yesharim writes, re'omim, choshech onan va'arafel, ki Hashem diber. And a ret, we have to see to be mechazek ourselves and try our best to be mashit, to be poshit, to straighten out that krume sheb'libeinu, to take away the krumkeiten, to understand glattkeiten, to live the life that he himself lived, to be machshiv b'tzelem Eloki, always with a positive word, always the dvar Torah, the mouth, always the dvar tefillah, dvar avodah, dvar aliyah, dvar chizuk, to help others. Indeed, im yirtzeh Hashem, if we have that kind of matzav and we're zoche to hear the ki Hashem diber. ובזכות the beginning of the pasuk, Baruch Hashem, ... על כל פנים ונאמר אמן. L'ilui nishmat Rabbi Gaon, Avraham Volkin. Ruach Hashem tenichenu b'Gan Eden. What an aveidah is this for us. Who can imagine the Bucharian community? We lost a giant. Avraham left us alone. I cannot even talk about it. It's very difficult for me to talk. Extremely difficult. We're going back years and years ago. 1993, 1994.

When I met Zecher Tzadik v'Kadosh Livracha, I was the only one then trying to do something in the Yam shel Choshech, and Rav Aaron was a shaliach. One day he called me up from Kew Gardens. He told me, I have a shul. My father had a shul packed with Bucharian people that just came out of Russia. What shall we do? How should we handle them? We met, and we became friends on the spot. So a man, he was young, energetic, big talmid chacham, huge, with a heart of gold. What a heart he had. Why? I told him I need help. Maybe you can come to the yeshiva. So he was with us. He was with me as a chaver, as a nosei b'ol, as rosh yeshiva, then Rosh HaKollel, name it, any name. What a lion, what a tiger, what a Talmid Chochem, yes. All the heart. We used to talk a lot. What a chochma he had. Many, many times he helped me and guided me to make the right decisions. So difficult for me to talk. I can't even get over it. But I have one story to share with you. I'll tell you who was this tzaddik. And I saw it. I don't know how it got, how they publish it, but it was like two years ago, I think, two, three years ago, if I'm not mistaken. A person from my shul, his wife gave birth to a baby boy, and they decided to invite Rav Aharon Zecher Tzadik V'Kadosh Livracha to be... It came as a sandek. They were asking me, I said, by all means, by all means, of course. So, by the day of the brit, Ravan came from Lakewood in the morning. I don't know even what time he left the house, because the brit had to take place at eight o'clock in the morning. He didn't know who is inviting him, who is giving him the kibud. He walked in, and he saw me there. That was his place also. And after the tefillah, he came to me and he told me, Who is Avi Avin? So I told him, It's one of the mispallim.

It's only a praise here. Yes. Why? I'm not gonna take the kibbutz. Why not? He said, No. You have to take it. You don't ... over here. You drive on the shul. I'm not gonna take it. I don't know. He was asking me. I said, Okay. What's your problem? I'm fine with this. Don't worry about me. The same guy doing it. Beshum ofen, he said. Why did they put me in such a situation? I'm not gonna take it. I was begging him, begging him. Everybody saw it. In one point, I was holding his hand, and I wanted to move him. I said, You're gonna get up. I didn't have enough koach to pick him up. It only ... whatever you're gonna do is not gonna help you. I'm not gonna sit on this chair. Don't ... yes, you are. He said, Uh-uh. This time, I'm not gonna give in. I'm not gonna step. Over your territory, I said, but I am accepting it. I agree to it. It's my kavod, and you're gonna sit here. He said, If you care for my kavod, if you care for me, if you're my friend, if you love me, as you claim you do, you're gonna sit. I'm giving you a psak now. Psak. The Rav ben, so what's going on? He said, I'm a chaimov. I think that you have to take it. I said to him, Give me two more minutes. I was sitting next to Rav Aaron. You came from Lakewood. I already, I got already so many of them. They want you because you're tzaddik, you're talmid chacham. Nu, nu. He said, Chaimov, you know me. I'm very serious. I love you. You're my best friend. I'm not gonna take it. If you care for me, you're gonna take it, and you're gonna make me happy. In the end, he was the winner. I had to take it. We gave him all the other kibudim, of course. I'm sure they didn't take everything. But what a middos he have. Who will do something like that? Who will do something like that? I came home, I said to myself, Ashrei his parents that they gave birth to such a child. For the fortunate his wife is to have such a Talmid Chacham at home. Palmides, that's Talmid Chacham. Palmides. He cared for everybody, every small thing he was able to pick it up. I don't know what the Bucharian people will do now. We lost. Aveidah kazos, mi ten lanu tmurato.

Who is going to replace him? I don't know. There is no one to replace him. Hashem should give koach, first of all to his wife, the almana, that she always supported him and his kids, the tzaddikim, and to his parents, his parents, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, רבי שיויל, also used to teach in our yeshiva. Hashem should give you koach. We're all suffering. I don't know what Hashem wants from us. But I feel, I feel like Hashem tore us to two pieces, like a half a person. All I have left to say is that Rav Aaron should pray for us. Rav Aaron, please pray for us. For the community that you loved so much, and everybody loved you so much. Hashem should have mercy on us, on your parents, on your wife, on your kids. And Hashem will wipe all the tears, all the tears of the family, the community, all Am Yisrael, that are in big trouble today, huge problem. With your koiches, now you do it up there. Pray for us, so everyone should have refuah shleimah. And Hashem will heal all the wounds, and Hashem will wipe all our tears. That's enough already. Uvila hamavet lanetzach, umacha Hashem dimah me'al kol panim. ונזכה לראות בביאת גואל צדק, תחיית המתים, וגאולה שלמה. אמן ואמן. It's extremely difficult speaking about the Rosh Yeshiva, about Rebbe, in the past tense. Because for me personally, and I'm sure for hundreds of other people in the community, he wasn't just our rabbi. He was many times our father, other times our brother, other times he was like a regular friend, many times a therapist. He just knew how to talk to us at different junctures of our life and connect in a unique fashion based on your needs at that moment. He was able to connect with the greatest Torah scholars and see eye to eye with them in every single topic. He was also able to connect with businessmen, whether they were diamond dealers, real estate agents, doctors, lawyers, barbers, public school students that didn't know Aleph Bet. He knew how to connect to everyone on his own level. It was a tremendous, tremendous koach. Now everyone heard about the greatness of the Walkin family, from the great-grandfather, the Sgan Aaron, from the grandfather, Shmuel David, to Rebbe's father, Moshe Yael Shlita, to his brothers. Everyone has a unique greatness in them. But it seemed like Rebbe, Rav Aaron zatzal, zecher tzaddik v'kadosh livracha, it seems like he had—

A bit of everyone's greatness, in lomdus, in Torah, in chesed, in heart, in kiruv and chokim outreach. He had a little bit of everything, and he perfected it. He really was a person that had everything in him, a tremendous, tremendous neshama, that only now, after mot kedoshim, we realize how much of a kadosh, how much of a tzaddik we had, and we missed out on this opportunity to really connect to him the way we should have. There's one thing I could say, that Rebbe, anything he did was pure heart. I'm telling you, anyone that drives from Queens to Lakewood, and from Lakewood to Queens in one day, we start complaining, back pains, this hurts, that hurts. Rebbe did this consistently. He used to come in l'shem shamayim to teach the balabatim, the bachurim, the avreichim, and he used to drive back and forth and back and forth and back and forth until eventually, out of rachmanut, out of mercy, we got him a dinky little apartment to live in, so he doesn't have to drive back and forth every day, so he could stay here a few days a week. Could you imagine what it means to leave your malchut, your malchut in Lakewood, to come live in a small little apartment in Queens? Why? To teach, to educate, to guide, to inspire people that were not from his community, the people from Klal Yisrael. He loved every person. With all his heart. There's people that judge you based on your background and your religious level and your knowledge. That's something you never saw with Rebbe. Everyone was equally loved and he cared for you. And the most beautiful thing is, it's not just me saying this. You just go stop anyone else that knew him. They'll tell you the same exact thing. That was the gadlus. That was the gadlut, the greatness of this great tzaddik that we lost. I can tell you, rabotai, personally myself, when it comes to Chazak, we started about 14 years ago. Rebbe was there from day one, from minute number one, from second number one. He was very, very involved. He took it to heart. He understood that thousands of neshamot are at the brink of, chas v'shalom, being lost. Good, good, holy neshamot that didn't get the education that some of us did have. And he lived his life to see, how can I improve? How can I help them out? And he used to always sit down with us: this idea and that idea, and go to this gadol b'Yisrael. And I used to have the zechut to see how he talked to gedolei Yisrael. Like I mentioned, he saw eye to eye with them. Some of them were 90, 30, 40 years older than him, but he was able to talk to them in learning. He was able to just connect with them on their own level. If there was a Litvish rosh yeshiva, he knew how to connect. A Admor from the Chassidim, he knew how to connect. A chacham from the Sefardim, he knew how to connect. Tell me, where are we going to find such a person out there today? Chad b'dor, ein safek, one in a generation, one in many generations. And that's what we lost. The last few conversations I had with Rebbe were only about the beis midrash and the kollel. Even when he wasn't feeling well, everyone that knew him, he barely complained. He barely complained, and he had all his issues, like everyone has issues, Baruch Hashem, in life. But he wasn't the type to complain. But he always cared about the beis midrash and kollel, and he called me, and I called him with follow-up: what we're doing, how we could succeed financially to make sure the avreichim are getting what they deserve, how we could make it grow, b'ezras Hashem. And he would always say, It's only the beginning, it's only the beginning. And sometimes when you want to give up, he would give us a little slap back in the face, and he would say, You got to be strong. We got to do this for the Klal. And there's a lot of people that say, Yeah, we got to do it l'shem Shamayim, but they have other intentions, chas v'shalom. But Rebbe was really l'shem Shamayim. He knew what it meant to live in this world, to get ready for the next world. Because most people, l'tzaarenu harav, we live in this world because we think we're here forever, and we forget the big picture, that we have an...

Responsibility. And that's what Rebbe taught us. There's an achrayut, there's an achrayus in this world. You have to answer to someone eventually. And he taught us to be soldiers, but with simcha, with happiness. Go over. I want everyone to go ask his baalei batim. They'll learn with him not for ten minutes every morning. Everyone knows after Shacharit, a rabbi usually gives five minutes, Dvar Halacha. He was scheduled for five, ten minutes also. He always went 20, 25, 30, 35 minutes. We didn't know how to stop him, because he had a passion to teach. When he finished the Dvar Halacha, he didn't run off. He went to the next table to go start another shiur. And he sat there with baalei batim that have businesses, that have jobs, for half hour for this guy, another hour for him. These guys stayed for two hours, another group stayed for two and a half hours. There were groups, chunks of guys that stayed so long every day, everyone according to what he could, just to learn with Rebbe. Who's going to take his place? The avreichim, he loved like his own children. He loved all of us, the bachurim, everyone like his own children. And now we lost him. But I want to tell you one thing, rabotai. I'm going to make it, bezrat Hashem, my mission, and I want this to be everyone's mission. Rav Aaron Walkin is not in this olam anymore. He's not in this world. But his legacy will remain in this world. We're going to do great things in his memory. How are we going to do it? Hashem is going to help, but we're going to do it. We will do it, and you will see we're going to do it, bezrat Hashem. Why? Because that's exactly what Rebbe wanted. And if it means we're going to sleep a little less at nights, we'll sleep a little less at nights. Rebbe used to stay up and learn and daven till three, four in the morning. He would sleep for a couple of hours and he rolled into bed midrash with all this fire and strength. So we're going to get some sleepless nights. We're going to work a little harder. We're going to do great things for Am Yisrael. I want to say on behalf of the entire community, Yasher koach to Rebbe. We're going to remember you forever. Yasher koach to the Rebbetzin for giving us Rebbe, giving us access to him every day, to her children, for letting us have him as our father figure. And b'ezrat Hashem, Hashem should give you the koach to continue strong, to continue Rebbe's legacy, b'ezrat Hashem. And we should be zocheh mamash b'karov to see techiyat hameitim. It's going to be very, very soon, b'ezrat Hashem. We're going to be zocheh to see it with the coming of Mashiach Tzidkeinu, b'meheira b'yameinu. Amen v'amen. Chazal tell us in Masechet Sotah, daf mem-zayin amud aleph, Mishemeis Yosi ben Yoezer ish Tzeredah v'Yosi ben Yehudah ish Yerushalayim, when these two people died, batlu ish ha'eshkolot. There was no longer anyone anymore, that person that was a cluster. Now what does that mean, ish ha'eshkolot, the person who was a cluster? And the Gemara explains that this is really a combination of words, ish shehakol bo. And the meforshim, especially the Tiferes Yisrael, explains, what does it mean, ish shehakol bo? The person had everything. And it explains this was a person who had Torah, who had yiras Shamayim, who had maasim tovim, and who did so many wonderful things that he was like a cluster of grapes, a beautiful grapevine that has all different colors, and the wine is so delicious and so special from that cluster. That's what an ish ashkolos is, and that's what was lost when these two tzaddikim passed away. And that's what I would like to say about Rav Aaron Zecher Tzadik Livracha. Aaron Walkin was an ish ashkolos. He was so multifaceted. Not only was he a great baal tefillah—people don't know this—not only did he blow shofar on Yamim Noraim, he was a great talmud chacham, and he was a person who could deal with everyone. He gave so many shiurim, both in Lakewood, both in Queens, and he gave to adults, and he gave to talmidei chachamim, and he gave to people who were just becoming frum, and he gave to children. That's an ish ashkolos. That's really what we lost here, a person who was like a cluster of grapes. But you know, he had another midah that to me was fabulous. You know, it's mentioned in Pirkei Avos, perek aleph, Mishnah...

Asei lecha rav. Make for yourself a rebbe. And that's something that I believe, and I've said it so many times, that each of us must have a rav, a rebbe, or a rosh yeshiva that we are guided by. But you know what he did? I made a list of the rabbanim that he was close to. You wouldn't believe it, because they were multifaceted. He was close to Chacham Ovadia Yosef in Eretz Yisrael. He was close to Rav Yisrael Belsky here in America, in Brooklyn, and that's where he learned Hilchos Treifos. And he was close to Rav Pam, and he would discuss with Rav Pam many inyanim of chinuch. He was close to Rav David Feinstein. Of course, he would ask Rav David many, many she'eilos. He was close to Rav Shmuel Birnbaum, and he was close to Rav Malkiel Kotler. So look at that unbelievable array. And that's why I think another reason that he could be called Ishu Ashkolos, because he had a cluster of vision and understanding of so many gedolim. And because of that, he was able to teach in a great way. And I'll tell you a great expression. If you take a look, there's a fellow, Rabbi Moshe Libu, who wrote for Artscroll. He wrote on Pirkei Avos. It's like a coffee table book. It's a fabulous book, fabulous sefer. And in there, on this Mishnah, Asei lecha rav, he quotes something from Rav Chaim Soloveitchik. Rav Chaim said that from sevarim you learn what to say; from a rebbe you learn what not to say. And we know how important that is, how sensitive a person has to be to speak to talmidim, what to say and what not to say. And that's what Rav Aaron Walkin was a master at. So it wasn't only Asei lecha rav that he made all these people his rabbeim, but he was an ishu ashkolos. That's what we lost. And I think that as we come to this hesped and listen to all those that are speaking, we have to try to take some of the characteristics of Rav Aaron, zecher tzaddik livracha, and try to adopt them to ourselves, that we should become the ishu ashkolos if we can, and certainly Asei lecha rav. Bila hamaves lanetzach, umacha Hashem Elokim dimah me'al kol panim. There should be no more death. There should be no more sadness, no more tears. And Rav Aaron Walkin should always remain a shining light not only to Chazak, but to all who knew him. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.