Roshei kollel in Yerushalayim, roshei yeshiva in America, rabbanim, mechanchim and mekarvim all over the world, upstanding baalei batim, dedicated and authentic bnei Torah everywhere.
They teach your children; they spread Torah; they learn b’mesiras nefesh.
They all learned, grew and were built under the longstanding caring guidance and dedication of Rav Zvi.
Due to the current crisis and the danger this poses, the Rosh Yeshiva is no longer able to collect funds for the Yeshiva and its future is in question. It is unclear how the annual $1.2m budget will be met.
153 current talmidim from all over the world also want to shteig and more are coming. But in the last few months it has become unclear how the Yeshiva can possibly continue. “Will we too be able to become gedolei Torah?” these talmidim wonder.
Now Rav Zvi is turning to us, Klal Yisrael, to secure the future of the Yeshiva.
YOU CAN HELP AND EVERY DOLLAR IS DOUBLED!
TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR THIS CAMPAIGN
TIME IS RUNNING OUT…
AN INTERVIEW WITH RAV ZVI – UNTOLD STORIES, 60 YEARS AS ROSH YESHIVA, OVER 3,000 TALMIDIM
By Rabbi Chaim Burman
As you read this a matched crowdfunding campaign is taking place for Yeshivas Heichal Hatorah in Yerushalayim. The Yeshiva, which is headed by Hagaon Rav Zvi Kushelevsky Shlita, has embarked on an ambitious Charidy Campaign with the goal of reaching over $1.2m to secure the future of the Yeshiva.
For years the Rosh Yeshiva would travel as many as seven times across the world to raise funds. However, due to the current crisis and the danger this would pose to him this is now impossible. Instead, the Yeshiva will be calling on Klal Yisroel and the many talmidim across the world to join together and support this outstanding institution of Torah and yiras shamayim.
Early Beginnings: Amongst Gedolim
After learning in Gateshead under the tutelage of his uncle Harav Leib Gurwicz, Rav Zvi relocated to America to what was then a tiny Kollel called Beis Hatalmud where he learned from Harav Leib Malin. In those early years, it became clear to Rav Zvi that he wished to dedicate his life to raising serious talmidim and guide them in reaching emes in their learning. “Those years were a terrific experience for me,” he recalled in a recent interview with his talmid and noted writer, R. Yonoson Rosenblum. “I gave a chabura to a number of talmidim and, over the years, they all became gedolei torah. Some are roshei yeshiva or roshei kollel, others are poskim. At that point I really realised that it is through teaching that you really learn; it’s the best way, like Chazal say: ‘Mi’talmidai yoser mi’kulam’”.
When Harav Moshe Feinstein called him up these initial feelings were confirmed. “I was giving a shiur for a small group of boys and one of them was a great-nephew of Rav Moshe. After hearing from him what he had learned and how he was shteiging in the shiur, Rav Moshe called me up to tell me that he felt that I had a real koach as a mechanech. That was a great compliment and gave me tremendous encouragement”.
There were other encounters which the Rosh Yeshiva felt were instrumental to molding his approach. “A talmid can gain immensely from having a measure of yirah from his rebbes. I learned this from the Brisker Rav. I would speak in learning with him and one time I suggested a pshat in the sugya which did not find favour in his eyes. He made that very clear! From that point on, before I would discuss anything in learning with him, I would review it very many times. On numerous occasions I would make the long walk across Yerushalayim to his house with a chiddush that I wanted to share but would end up pacing round his street in Geulah, running through the idea over and over in my head. Was it really solid? Could it stand up to the Rav’s critique? There were occasions that I felt that, although the chidush sounded very beautiful, there were certain elements that couldn’t be proved conclusively and I would return home. This trained me; those experiences taught me how to learn and that one needs yirah from one’s rebbes”.
After a number of years as Rosh Kollel in Manchester, England and harbotzas Torah in France and Eretz Yisroel, time had come to start his own Yeshiva. Founded with a modest 10 talmidim on Rechov Sorotzkin, the Yeshiva soon moved to Geulah before outgrowing those premises and relocating to Givat Shaul (Pressburg) in 1986. About 20 years ago, a beautiful purpose-built building was dedicated in Har Nof which houses the Yeshiva, its dormitory and the home of the Rosh Yeshiva and his Rebbetzin.
The Yeshiva and its Derech Halimmud
Perhaps more than his personal interactions with gedolei yisroel, Rav Zvi feels that it is the approach of his ancestor, the Vilna Gaon, that has served as a guide for his learning and the derech he would teach to his talmidim: “My approach is built on that of the Gra. He has an amazing and rare ability to refine the pshat in the sugya right down to very central point and put it in very concise words. No-one does it as well as he; only perhaps the gedolei harishonim. His approach trained me and anyone who learns a sugya properly can gain immensely from examining the Gaon’s approach in Biur Hagra, a work that I have written on quite a lot”.
This methodology of learning in the Yeshiva is based upon an unwavering commitment to proving positions and assertions through logic and rayos. “We don’t say just anything that could be said; we only say something that can be proven. That was the greatness of the rishonim and why I put such an emphasis on learning them. One has to stick to sechel hayashar because once one deviates from that you can really say anything at all and then you can find yourself very far away from the emes”.
Harav Yerachmiel Fried is now a community Rav and Rosh Kollel in Texas, author of Yom Tov Sheni Kehilchoso. Remembering his years in the Yeshiva, he likens the Rosh Yeshiva’s approach to building his talmidim to training with the marines: “Coming to the Yeshiva was like joining the marines. First of all, you have to forget all that you thought you knew about learning and then you get built up again afresh. That has been immensely influential for me throughout my years in harbotzas torah and I’m still growing from it today”.
This is a message that is echoed by loyal talmidim across the world. Numerous talmidim have gone on to start yeshivos in Eretz Yisroel and America and Kollelim in Dallas, Amsterdam, London, and Odessa were established by chaburos of alumni. Other talmidim became rabbonim and poskim, outstanding in their own such as Harav Meir Kessler, Mara d’Asra of Kiryat Sefer, Harav Shraga Kallus and the sorely missed Dayan Westheim zt”l of Manchester.
The Talmidim
Over the four decades of the Yeshiva’s existence, more than three thousand talmidim have passed through its doors. Talmidei chachamim and ehrliche baalei batim alike, the Rosh Yeshiva sees all his talmidim as the children that he has not merited to have. “It gives me a tremendous nachas when talmidim tell me that they feel they had a Rosh Yeshiva that really trained them in how to approach a sugya rather than just sharing some nice ideas and ‘reyd’ on the Daf. Chazal tell us that one who teaches Torah to another, in a certain way, becomes their father and, boruch Hashem, I am delighted that my talmidim feel that way and I get a lot of satisfaction from seeing them and their children (my “grandchildren”) continually growing!”
The Yeshiva currently has over 150 bachurim and avreichim learning in the Yeshiva with 30 paid staff members. Although bachurim travel from all over the world to come to hear the Rosh Yeshiva’s shiur, a number of years ago, a two-year Shiur Alef and Beis program was set up under the guidance of veteran talmidim, Harav Simcha Fordsham and Harav Gavriel Schneider. This program attracts boys from numerous high schools worldwide and provides them with close attention and caring guidance as they develop as well-rounded talmidim who are ready to progress to the Rosh Yeshiva’s shiur.
Collecting for the Yeshiva and this Campaign
Since the Yeshiva was established the Rosh Yeshiva ensured that every payment to staff an avreichim would been made on time. It hasn’t always been easy: “If there wasn’t enough money, I paid from my personal funds and I have been very makpid never to take a dime for myself. That is something that we always felt very strongly about. I am also particular that the Yeshiva should never go into debt. Once there was a certain well-known gvir who came to Eretz Yisroel, visiting all the major Yeshivos, writing checks to pay off all their debt. He could not believe it when I told him that we have no debt whatsoever! It’s a principle that I have run the Yeshiva by for many years. My approach to hishtadlus for the yeshiva has been to do my utmost and then stop. At that point I can rest assured that Hakodosh Boruch Hu will sustain the Yeshiva. When people take action le’shem shamayim, they get remarkable siayta di’shmaya.”
Today the Yeshiva is facing an unprecedented challenge. The Rosh Yeshiva cannot travel to collect for the Yeshiva’s $1.2m yearly budget due to the risk it would present him. For the next day, his friends and talmidim have taken it upon themselves to raise over $1.2m via a crowdfunded, matched Charidy campaign, playing their part in securing the continuity of the Yeshiva and ensuring that future talmidim will also merit to gain from the Rosh Yeshiva’s unique and searching derech halimud.
YESHIVA EXPERIENCES OF TALMIDIM
“How did the Yeshiva experience change my life?!…The question is a bit unfair. The Yeshiva experience didn’t change my life; it is the foundation for everything I am today!” – Harav Shraga Kallus, Posek & Rosh Kollel, Yerushalayim
“Coming to the Yeshiva was like joining the marines. First of all, you had to forget all that you thought you knew about learning and then you get built up again afresh. My experience there was immensely influential for me throughout my years in harbotzas torah and I’m still growing from it today!” – Harav Yerachmiel Fried, Rav & Rosh Kollel, Dallas, author of Yom Tov Sheni Kehilchoso
“He’s a parent to every talmid in the Yeshiva, a real parent; because a real parent gives children the education according to who he is; the special attributes; the unique personality they have.” – Harav Daniel Travis, Mashgiach of the Yeshiva; Rosh Kollel, Yerushalayim
THE FUTURE OF THE YESHIVA IS IN QUESTION.
Ensure that current and future talmidim will also have the opportunity to shteig and grow from the Rosh Yeshiva and the maggidei shiur in the Yeshiva.
IT’S UP TO YOU.
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