Summary of Rebbe's Hesped for the Rav

Through Rebbe, we also have a Rav:

The Rav had a soft spot for simple Jews -- he used to give the keys toh is apartment not to one of the top guys from shiur, but to a regular guy. He had patience and tolerance for all Jews who came to him. R. Reichman once asked him the difference between him and the Lubavitcher rebbe -- the Rav said the Rebbe could stay up all night talking to non-religious Jews and he loves them, but the Rav said he preferred religious Jews.

The Rav loved his audience. Why did non-lumdisha Jews attend his shiurim? Even if the intellectual message was not always accessible to them, the Rav's love of Torah and his audience was clearly felt. Thousands wouldcome to his shiurim; unprecedented for a magid shiur. What was his secret? He made Torah accessible; his heart overflowed with love and was empoweringto the audience. Like a child who comes home from cheder to show a picture he made to his parents, the Rav shared his most precious discoveries with us, his audience.

The Rav was motivated by the unity of klal yisrael -- he predicted thatin America, there would be widespread dropping out of Judaism unless one spoke to Jews in a language they understood -- Zionism and secular studies. The Rav often said that if hakadosh baruch hu didn't bless klal yisrael with medinat yisrael after the shoah, then the number of Jews dropping out would have been much worse. R. Reichman attributes the Rav's love for Jews to his childhood in a simple, poor Russian town. The Rav saw talmud torah as ultimately the only way to reach and unite Jews. Our duty as talmidim is to carry on that love; as Y'hoshua bin Nun carried on for Moshe.

R. Reichman told a story that after he got his smicha, his father wanted him to get his PhD. R. Reichman just wanted to learn. So the Rav told him to learn for a year or 2, then to get his PhD. 2 years later, R.Reichman was still learning, and his father called the Rav to say that R. Reichman had reneged on the deal. So the Rav asked R. Reichman if he spoke any lashon hara; to which he replied "of course, rebbe." So the Rav said "in the time you speak lashon hara, study for a PhD." The next semester,R. Reichman was registered for 6 credits of graduate work.

He told a story of a guy in shiur who used to read a lot of philosophy, he wanted very much to be like the Rav. One day after shiur, this guy tried tostart up a conversation with the Rav about some philosopher, but the Ravtold him all the philosophy in the world doesn't help figure out pshat in a Rabbenu Tam.Once the Rav's wife called the shamash -- the Rav had gone into a room that morning, and after a while, she knocked on the door -- no answer. The door was locked. Time passed, the shamash knocked, no answer. R. Reichman came over and tried, but still no answer. After 15 hours, he came out --he had been engrossed in a difficult Rambam and hadn't heard them.

Only once did R. Reichman see the Rav really angry -- his 3rd year in shiur, they were learning Yevamot, which the Rav had never learned with his grandfather. They were having a difficult time of it, back and forth over this pshat, that pshat, 18 hours/week of shiur. So the boys in shiur decided to ask the Rav to switch masechtot, and they made a petition. They gave it to him on Thursday. On Monday, the Rav came into shiur visibly angry, opened his gemara and started learning Yevamot. Someone asked him if he had read the petition, at which point he exploded and gave a 20 minute tirade about their lack of effort and motivation.

A rebbe is like an av and an eim; thus kriat b'gadim applies to both parents and a rebbe. There is an element of honor and fear in therelationship. The Rav used to say that the Torah is like mayim -- it must be poured into a kli without cracks. The Rav was always making students into complete kelim. Every shiur of the Rav was like his very first shiur. R. Aharon Lichtenstein used to marvel at the way the Rav would ponder over a kasha that he had answered 5 times in previous years -- He is a master pedagogue, R. Aharon said, to put on this display. But R. Reichman's interpretation is that it was no display -- the Rav was m'chadesh in every shiur, each teretz was a new act of creation. Whenever someone said "But Rebbe, last year you said . . ." the Rav would say "forget it." He wanted to figure it out anew. R. Reichman is sure that in the Rav's mind, present at every shiur were R. Chaim and R. Moshe; also Rashi, the Rambam, etc. etc. The talmidim were really the guests at the shiur.

The Gemara relates that Rav [the Amora - Mod.] came home every Fridaynight to make kiddush after he died. The Rav said that it was absolutelytrue, for 2 reasons. The Beit Yosef wrote a book in which he discusses aconversation with a malach, and he would not have written such a sefer ifit weren't true; and because R. Moshe had visited him twice. The Rambam says that the Shechina never leaves the Jewish people in exile and in tumah -- it represents the mida of loyalty. No one was more loyal than the Rav -- his loyalty to his wife, to Y.U., to Drs. Belkin and Lamm, to his talmidim. He was matir neder after shiur sometimes, with 3 talmidimf rom the shiur. Why? Because he had said they would be done with a certain sugya by a certain time, and they weren't done yet.

He raised money for the Brisker Yeshiva in spite of the differences between them in hashkafa, and in spite of those who tried to sour the relationship between the two.

The Rav was involved in kashrut in Boston when he first arrived. He was framed by some in Boston and brought up on serious criminal charges. Another rabbi from Boston falsely testified against him. Eventually, theRav was cleared entirely. Decades later, that rabbi was brought up on taxe vasion charges, and the Rav still spoke to the judge on this other Rabbi'sbehalf. The Rav held with the Rambam against the Ramban -- one should not even think about revenge; it isn't just the maaseh which is the lav.