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Please put all your thoughts and stories about our Dear Rosh Hayeshiva here.
Like probably every talmid of the Rosh HaYeshiva, I cannot beleive what I have seen on the front page of YWN this morning. It took a few moments for me to exhale after reading those blazing words in the headlines. My eyes watered up and I am sad. Very, very sad. I remember his as one who lived every second in agony and pain from his parkinsons disease ever since I knew him. Yet, he pushed and pushed and pushed himself ??? ??? ???? to become this ULTIMATE tzaddik, this BEAUTIFUL and HAILIGE MALACH OF A MAN!
OY, WHO SUFFERED AS MUCH AS THAT MAN?! In his incomprehensibly weakened state he would constantly battle back with all his ??????, continuing to shteig in his learning, all the while showering us with love, words of wisdom, and a world of chizuk. It was a ???? to learn with him, or even to just watch him from the distance. He was a living mussar sefer walking among us. When you watched him, you took more than any other mussar sefer on the shelf has to offer! He was someone I will ALWAYS remember, someone I am proud to have known, and someone I will tell my children about with love and reverence.
Years ago I learned in the Mir. So I remember when Rosh Hashana was around the corner, the gabboim were always busy and oisek in the tremendous project of making charts with set seats for all the 100’s and 100’s of Bnei Hayeshiva, for the the Yomim Nora’im davening. And it was a project that took sometimes weeks, filled with many suggestions, requests, and somtimes even many complaints. Sometimes it was a very heated topic that easily led to loud discussions and debates. When the R”Y addressed the bochurim once by a va’ad, he brought up this subject and remarked one simple remark. Yet, it aptly discribed who he was all about.
He said, “the only advantage I have sitting up front by the ‘Mizrach Vant’ is that I have the pleasure of looking out and seeing all your beautiful faces.”
We will miss you, R”Y. You were our Tatte away from home, our perfect rolemodel, and our source of everlasting chizzuk.
Thank you Baal Habooze. His love for his talmidim and his mesirus nefesh are legendary. I feel privileged to say I learned in the Mir under the Rosh HaYeshiva, zecher tzadik v’kadosh l’bracha. After years of saying “the Rosh HaYeshiva Shlita” its painful to verbalize the words “the Rosh HaYeshiva zatzal”.
I know he grew up in Chicago but that’s just about it. I never had the zechus of meeting him and never learned under him but I understand this is a great loss but I can promise you he is in a much better place than we are and no longer will be suffering from anything like parkinsons.
This is one of my favorite Rav Nosson Tzvi stories.
Told by Howard Shultz the founder of Starbucks :
When I was in Israel, I went to Mea Shearim, the ultra-Orthodox area within Jerusalem. Along with a group of businessmen I was with, I had the opportunity to have an audience with Rabbi Finkel, the head of a yeshiva there. I had never heard of him and didn’t know anything about him. We went into his study and waited ten to 15 minutes for him. Finally, the doors opened.
What we did not know was that Rabbi Finkel was severely afflicted with Parkinson’s disease. He sat down at the head of the table, and, naturally, our inclination was to look away. We didn’t want to embarrass him.
We were all looking away, and we heard this big bang on the table: “Gentlemen, look at me, and look at me right now.” Now his speech affliction was worse than his physical shaking. It was really hard to listen to him and watch him. He said, “I have only a few minutes for you because I know you’re all busy American businessmen.” You know, just a little dig there.
Then he asked, “Who can tell me what the lesson of the Holocaust is?” He called on one guy, who didn’t know what to do-it was like being called on in the fifth grade without the answer. And the guy says something benign like, “We will never, ever forget?” And the rabbi completely dismisses him. I felt terrible for the guy until I realized the rabbi was getting ready to call on someone else. All of us were sort of under the table, looking away-you know, please, not me. He did not call me. I was sweating. He called on another guy, who had such a fantastic answer: “We will never, ever again be a victim or bystander.”
The rabbi said, “You guys just don’t get it. Okay, gentlemen, let me tell you the essence of the human spirit.
“As you know, during the Holocaust, the people were transported in the worst possible, inhumane way by railcar. They thought they were going to a work camp. We all know they were going to a death camp.
“After hours and hours in this inhumane corral with no light, no bathroom, cold, they arrived at the camps. The doors were swung wide open, and they were blinded by the light. Men were separated from women, mothers from daughters, fathers from sons. They went off to the bunkers to sleep.
“As they went into the area to sleep, only one person was given a blanket for every six. The person who received the blanket, when he went to bed, had to decide, ‘Am I going to push the blanket to the five other people who did not get one, or am I going to pull it toward myself to stay warm?'”
And Rabbi Finkel says, “It was during this defining moment that we learned the power of the human spirit, because we pushed the blanket to five others.”
And with that, he stood up and said, “Take your blanket. Take it back to America and push it to five other people.”
Howard Schultz is chairman and chief global strategist of Starbucks. Schultz received the Columbia Business School’s Botwinick Prize in Business Ethics last September. This article is excerpted from his acceptance speech. Reprinted from Hermes magazine, Columbia Business School, Spring 2001. Reprinted with permission from the Yated Ne’eman.
I never learned in the Mir, so I was not a student of his. However, years ago on one of his fundraising trips, I did have the zchus to meet him briefly. He came to speak at my yeshiva. We were told beforehand that he wasn’t feeling well. When he spoke, is voice was so weak we could barely hear him.
Afterward, I had my chance to meet him. My Rebbe took me over to him and told him my name. When he spoke, it was even less than a whisper, and I could barely hear him. He gave me a brachah while holding my hand, and that was it.
What struck me was that although he wasn’t really able to communicate by speech, he still communicated. You could feel the warmth and love just rolling off of him. You really felt, here was someone who cared about you despite just meeting you seconds ago.
I heard that he refused medication for fear it would affect his concentration in learning. Instead he suffered for years!
1)Harav Aaron Schechter Shlit”a was maspid Maran Tz”l.
He mentioned that Maran lived the first parsha of Shema-“Bchol Nafshicha” that Bchol includes one who has yesurim. R’Nosson Tzvi was marbe more & more Torah even though he had tremendous yesurim!
2) A neighbor of mine told me a maase. He once went to E”Y after he got married & he wanted to meet Maran since he never saw him. Someone showed him his house. He knocked on the door, and someone opened up. He found Maran learning with a bachur & Maran motioned him over. Maran asked him a few questions like any other conversation you have with someone you met for the first time. Why??? Ay he was in middle of learning?? It’s beacuse he had a moridike Ahavas Yisrael!!! No matter who he was or someone he never even saw in his life! A yid is a Yid Kodesh!
May he be a Meiletz Yosher for the entire Yeshiva & the whole Klal Yisrael. B’suros Tovos.
Whenever I spoke to the R”Y zt”l, I suddenly felt this ahava towards the R”Y. For the first time, I truly understood the pasuk in Mishlei ????????? ????????? ????????? ???? ???-??????? ???????
His love for his talmidim was palpable and as the pasuk says, you cant do anything but love him back. This is how he was able to remember his talmidim, because he loved them all.
Most of us have heard shmuzzim about ??????????? ???????? ???????? But when the R”Y said it, it had a new meaning. Hearing those words from someone who lived it, hearing about Mesirus Nefesh from someone who lived it 24/7 penetrates deeper.
The R”Y grew up in America, and still became the R”Y. We all need to keep his legacy going by emulating him, and with increased Ahavas Yisroel may we be zoche to Bias Goel Tzedek Bimheira Biyomeinu.
Whenever I think about it, all I can muster is a painful sigh.
As a Mir Talmid, I can honestly tell you, that his warmth and love for every yid emanated from within his essence pouring over whoever was near him. His radiant smile exuded sheer joy and calmness.
It is astounding when one thinks back at his physical suffering as well as the frustration tied up with being ill, and in pain,
hard to communicate or stay still all the while being in the spotlight of the public eye as a Choshuveh Rosh Yeshiva.
A person worried about their own kavod, would take some medication, if not for the pain then the for the symptoms.
Anyone who knew the Rosh Yeshiva ZT”L would say What personal Kavod?
The Rosh Yeshivas ZT”L only concern with Kavod, was Kavod Hoboire,
Kavod Hatorah, and the welfare of Klal Yiroel. To be marbeh Torah. All his talmidim were truly loved as children, and all who met him he greeted and treated like his Talmidim.
We lost a true shepherd.
Rav Schachter was Maspid him quoting a Gemara in Yoma. The Gemara says that Hillel is Mechayev all the Aniyim in Talmud Torah because Hillel was so poor and yet still learned. Rav Schachter says that R’ Nosson Tzvi is Mechayev all of us because he managed to learn so much even with terrible physical afflictions.
If the mods will let it through, I will post a link to R’ Schachter’s Hesped (YUTorah). Rav Schachter is the first 10 minutes or so. I’m not sure who the last 8 minutes is.
“I’m not sure who the last 8 minutes is.”
Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
AYC: I knew the name. It’s on the site. I just don’t know anything about him or who he is.
Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer is a Rebbe and Maggid Shiur at Yeshivas Ohr Somayach in Monsey, NY; at the Mesivta of Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchok Elchonon (commonly known as MTA) in New York; at Yeshivas Ohr Reuven in Monsey; and at Bat Torah Academy in Paramus, NJ. He is also an editor at Artscroll/Mesorah Publications, at work on the new Midrash Rabbah project. Rabbi Bechhofer has served as a Rav, Rebbe and Rosh Kollel in the Chicago and New York areas.
Rabbi Bechhofer is one of the few individuals to have served as Maggid Shiur for both Daf Yomi Bavli and Daf Yomi Yerushalmi, completing both.
(from aishdas org)
Is this Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer the Eruv expert?
One time a talmid came to Rav Nosson Tzvi For a Brocho, with his 6 year old. The 6 year old asked the Rosh Yeshiva for a brocha. The rosh yeshiva gave the child a bracha, The Rosh Yeshiva then turned to the child and said, now it your turn to give me a brocha. The boy was too embarassed, but after a while he agreed. The boy turned too the Rosh Yeshiva and said, “the Rosh Yeshiva should grow up to be a big talmid chacham. The rosh yeshiva had a smile on his face the rest of that day.
I never had time to zone in for his passing away, as I was in the midst of my own sitting Shiva for a dear departed family member.
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