Mr. Wolfson had just turned 25 when he approached Rav Aharon with a bold plan to petition Secretary of State John Foster Dulles via important US Senators, to recommend that Chinuch Atzmai be a recipient of counterpart funds that were being distributed by the US Government at the time. Rav Aharon Kotlers sister Malka was relentless in trying to convince him to leave Slabodka, enroll in university, and join the modern world. Every so often, individuals emerge in Jewish history who, by dint of their personality and intellect, profoundly change the topography of Jewish life. When he delivered his shiur in Kletzk or Lakewood, it was often a challenge to follow his line of reasoning. Rav Aharon chose Kletzk partly as a result of its proximity to the new border, but there was a historical impetus as well. Rav Aharon believed that the appropriate form of activism was for the American Jewish community to aim its frustration directly at elected officials, and that success was more likely through quiet diplomacy conducted behind closed doors. He arrived on September 10th, 1935 having left Europe from Cherbourg, France aboard the Majestic. I know you do a lot, but Im begging you to do even more considering the circumstances. He answered that Rav Aharons personal magnetism was what drew him in, but even more so, he was impressed that Rav Aharon spoke with such enthusiasm and persuasiveness while maintaining his integrity, something he rarely encountered among other rabbis who solicited him. This would fill the need for obtaining the desired college degree while not compromising on the curriculum and attendance of the yeshivah framework. It wasnt just the working class who bought into the warm weather fallacy and filled the numerous resort hotels that lined the streets along the lake. A few minutes later, they were offically welcomed into the yeshivah. Worked for her in 1967 when she was doing her PhD in political science and worked for the Albany legislature. In recognition of his status, as well as the fact that he was an orphan, Rav Aharon was provided by the Katzovisheh Shul with a significantly larger stipend than others. For the Torah and its scholars are the heart of the nation. At that time Vaad Hatzalah had one million dollars ready for transfer, to be used as barter for Jewish captives who were held in the claws of the accursed German murderers. Fourteen-year-old Rav Aharon, however, noticed something amiss. Upon hearing that neurologists believe that people have access to only a fraction of their brains potential, he declared to his student Rabbi Dr. Dovid Fox, They never knew Rav Aharon Kotler; every brain cell was full of brilliance!. There are about 230 students in this yeshivah, 40 of whom are still in Vilna. Rav Aharons focus on his studies was such that he regularly forgot to eat his meals. On the top water, below water, and on the side water!, I couldnt resist and said, Rav Aharon, this is what they teach in college. Without a minutes hesitation, he retorted, They already have tunnels.. Rav Aharon translated his fiery energy into rescue activities and toward the rebuilding of Europes shattered Torah world. Away from his illustrious father-in-law, Rav Aharon was now on his own. On June 15, 1940 only eight months after the Kletzk Yeshivah escaped to Vilna the Lithuanian government caved to a Soviet ultimatum and the Red Army entered the country. The Russian principal was curious to test the genius of this boy in mathematics. This made Beth Medrash Govoha a bridge of sorts, where the yeshivah tradition of Eastern Europe was handed over to a new generation of leaders and Torah scholars. IN THIS CHAPTER I analyse the way in which Rabbi Aharon Kotler (1891-1962) presented Maimonides' thought. From year to year he grew in his brilliance, and now he is among the giants of the generation. Following the founding of Torah Umesorah, he worked in lockstep with Dr. Joseph Kamenetsky, Rabbi Alexander Gross and Rabbi Bernard Goldenberg to found day schools in cities across America, making it clear that he was willing to sacrifice a day saying an intricate shiur on a sugya in Yevamos to ensure that a Jewish child in Minneapolis or Seattle would have the chance to learn the Alef-beis. On June 22, 1941, the Nazis violated the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and invaded the Soviet Union. The majority of students, however, chose to remain with the Rav of Slabodka, Rav Moshe Danishevsky, until Rav Chaim Rabinowitz (known to posterity as Rav Chaim Telzer) was hired as rosh yeshivah. You, Mr. Kaufman, were one of the great supporters of Torah, when you leave This World, that simchah will be given to you.. Until the last day of his life, Reb Zev lived with a shlichus a mission that he learnt and felt from Rav Aharon.. By the end of 1907, construction was completed, and Congregation Sons of Israel opened. A lot of them were meshumadim!, Rav Aharon did not back down. Rav Isser Zalman conveyed the Frank familys position to the Alter of Slabodka, emphasizing the pain this was causing his mother-in-law, the elderly widow. The House. The Mir rosh yeshivah, Rav Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, understood that if Rav Aharon was exerting such energy to retrieve Rav Noach, then he must be worth keeping, and so argued that he already belonged to Mir. Rav Aharon told him, Your children will not have to worry. Today his children and grandchildren are major supporters of Torah. Rabbi Shlomo Lorincz was present when Beth Medrash Govoahs financial director Rabbi Yaakov Weisberg informed Rav Aharon that the yeshivah hadnt paid salaries for five months and suppliers were threatening to stop deliveries. Must leave Moscow within 24 hours. Rav Aharon used to say, The acronym of Rosh Mesivta is RAM, which when reversed are the letters MAR, which means bitter. The townspeople now welcomed Rav Aharons group of yeshivah students with open arms. The Alter, in his genius, was likely testing their resolve. [1] During his tenure, he developed the Lithuanian -style, Haredi but non- Hasidic yeshiva into the largest post-graduate Torah institution in the world. There were shuls for carpenters, shoemakers, tailors, milliners, water carriers, kehillah officials, and even rag-makers. Photos: BMG Archives, Agudah Archives, DMS Yeshiva Archives, Wolfson Family, Hoberman Family, Kamenetsky Family, National Library of Israel, US Dept of State, Prof. Chaim I. Waxman, YIVO, Torah Umesorah Archives, Chinuch Atzmai Archives, Perr Family, Golding Family, Bunim Family, TAJ Art and Judaica, Feivel Schneider, A child is playing outside a shul. Other rabbis are (from 1. to r.) middle row: 7th, Shaul Goldman, Brooklyn; 9th, Shmuel Maslow, Brooklyn; 12th, Leib Polak, Denver; top row: 1st, Yaakov Zaretzky, Bnei Brak; 5th, Rav Shneur Kotler, 8th, Alter Pekier. Rav Chatzkels daughter, Rebbetzin Zlata Ginsburg, recalled the exuberance of the Kletzk townspeople when they learned of this exciting development. The towns rav, Rav Chaim Shimon Herensohn, recalled that his father and predecessor had invited Slabodka to establish the branch there upon its founding in 1897. The initial Sephardic immigrants to America in the 1700s built beautiful synagogues, he told Bunim. Who knows why they converted and at what risk they did it? he countered. When Rav Aharon told Reb Shraga Feivel of his plan to open the yeshivah in Lakewood, without hesitating, Reb Shraga chose some of the Mesivtas best including Rav Elya Svei, Rav Yisrael Kanarek, and Rav Yaakov Weisberg and sent them to Rav Aharon. Initial quarters were located on top of a Chinese laundry on Fourth Street, and the annual rent was $105. Rav Dachowitz whispered to Rav Aharon: You must understand what is going on here! The first months of Rav Aharons stay in Slabodka featured successive visits from great rabbinical leaders. Following World War I, the Lakewood Township embarked on the construction of a memorial to local soldiers who had perished, inviting famed cantor Yossele Rosenblatt to sing Kel Malei at the consecration. Ironically, Rabbi Waxman had been one of the student delegates representing Mir Yeshiva at the Kletzk groundbreaking in 1929, and had written to Rav Eliezer Yehuda Finkel a few months prior, trying to convince him to reestablish the refugee Mir Yeshiva in Lakewood. It is a great honor to stand at the helm of a packed beis medrash and teach Torah, that is RAM lofty and elevated. Wait until all of the bochurim return, he told them, and perhaps there will be some space for you., Dejected, they exited the room. His sefer Mekor Baruch garnered world-acclaim, specifically in the Torah community. My grandfather used to come for mini-vacations sometimes. The Vishker Illui, Rav Yaakov Safsel, was one of the great young prodigies of the Lithuanian Torah world at the turn of the century. Rav Aharon stopped talking and looked out the window, to the right and to the left. German Jews arrived in the 19th century and built institutions of chesed, Jewish hospitals, philanthropic organizations such as the Joint but abandoned traditional Jewish observance. We talk to a rabbi about why, and what it means. Once again, the communist noose had tightened and institutions of religious instruction faced an uncertain future. He would take eight lit torches, throwing one and catching another, without one touching the other (Succah 53a). Luminaries who studied in Slutzk during its first two decades include Rav Elazar M. Shach, Rav Yosef Eliyahu Henkin, Rav Aryeh Levine, Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, Rav Moshe Aharon Poleyoff, and Rav Moshe Feinstein. In Slabodka there was something of a caste system, with older students rarely acknowledging their junior counterparts, let alone conversing with them. The name Pines was derived from the words, al pines by a miracle, marking a miraculous salvation that took place generations prior. The energy he exuded, the pathos of his speech, and the glow of his face made it a surreal experience. His face was beet-red with excitement and exertion. Following the call of their leaders: When Vaad activist Herman Hollander (not pictured) and his wife Grace learned that there was a possibility that Jewish lives could be ransomed from the Nazis, with a sense of alacrity, they sold their hard-earned, newly acquired Brooklyn home, with the proceeds benefiting the life-saving work of the Vaad Hatzalah. Bunim arrived at Rav Aharons house to find him running a fever. He was only 14 years old, but that didnt stop him from being outspoken in shiur, challenging the rosh yeshivah, Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein. Minsks spirit of Toras chesed was a tradition from the citys great rabbinic leaders of the 18th century: Rav Leib Baal Hatosafos, his grandson Rav Aryeh Leib Gunzburg, the Shaagas Aryeh; and Rav Yechiel Halpern, the Seder Hadoros. In 1903 he was offered the rabbinate of the larger town of Krinik, which he accepted on condition that he could open a yeshivah there as well. sister. But Ive known him since his youth. As the yeshivah grew in size, Rav Aharon worked to ensure it grew in quality as well. I go, Rav Hutner answered, simply to hear Rav Aharon Kotler utter the word Torah.. The Torah will begin to rise in a new place before its current locus goes dark. Goldstein now turned his attention to building the shul and he began to fundraise. Rav Aharon Kotler was a man with a fiery passion for Torah and a deep love for his students. They werent religious Jews. Rav Aharon refused to enter until Rav Boruch Ber went first. They were all excited and willing to sacrifice We would work from morning till night in the long summer days and not feel at all tired.. He choked up, and remained crying at the podium for ten minutes without saying a word. This time, he planned to ask the little genius such a hard mathematical klutz kasha that he would gape in confusion. There was no longer any doubt that one of the youngest students in Slabodka was also one of its greatest, for there was nothing more complimentary in yeshivah circles than being the recipient of a full-frontal attack by the great Rav Leizer Telzer who would regularly use barbs to buy time as his lightning-quick mind reworked his thought process. Rav Aharon turned to his most trusted associate, Irving Bunim, and asked him to help find an ideal location for the yeshivah. Other supporters of note were Mrs. Necha Golding and her husband Sam, who hosted Rav Aharon in their New York home. Drive slower, Rav Aharon told me, so that we arrive after eight. An early student at the yeshivah described how it was such a novelty at the time, that visitors to Lakewood hotels would occasionally peer into the windows of the beis medrash and stare in astonishment at the men avidly learning. His schedule included delivering a daily blatt shiur and the semichah shiur, where he readied scores of budding scholars for the rabbinate. Rav Aharon was also assisted by two young rabbis, Herbert Goldstein and Leo Jung, who made introductions to wealthy congregants and hosted a large tribute event. Before the days of commercial airplane travel, urban dwellers looking to escape the cold winters in New York City would travel to Lakewood, where the temperatures were said to be, on average, more than ten degrees warmer. Did you ever see the Rosh Yeshivahs photograph? Those are my commentaries on the Talmud, he explained. The yeshivah was in the process of welcoming a new rosh yeshivah, Rav Baruch Ber Leibowitz, whose shiurim would dominate the Lithuanian Torah landscape for the next 35 years. Rav Hillel Bishko played an integral role in the kollels founding. Ultimately, Rav Aharon's students opened day schools, yeshivos and kollelim around the world. They sat down in the dining room and waited. During the final decades of his life, Rav Aharon entered a phase of leadership that boggles the mind in terms of its scope and activism. I have come only to help save, with your assistance, American Yidden, the centuries-old Torah centers of Europe. In 1943 Rav Kotler pulled off a historic accomplishment by opening one of the first European standard Yeshivos, Bais Medrash Gevoha in Lakewood NJ, on the shores of America. Rav Aharon himself provided for many of the students in the early chaotic days. Rav Dovid Cohen related to us a postscript to the story. In the shiur it was just like Lakewood; there was basically nothing external. It was a desperate time for Jewry in general, but most certainly for the outnumbered and outgunned Orthodox Jewish community.. You know what? -Rav Shaul Kagan. Most younger students were placed in the Ohr Hachaim Yeshivah Ketanah affiliated with Slabodka, known as Rav Hirschalehs yeshivah for its founder Rav Tzvi Hirsch Levitan. Those rabbis also encouraged advanced American yeshivah students to study in Mir and Slabodka, which generated publicity as well. He attempted to work with Reform and secular Jewish leaders and non-Jews as well. Without total submission to Torah learning, he said, without fundamental lomdus, toil and perseverance, Torah cannot takeroot in the individuals soul, cannot change hisbeing or essence. He was quiet, calm, easygoing, a boy tender as silk, who spent day and night learning and serving the Creator. The faculty at Slutzk realized that the yeshivah would have to move away from Bolshevik sovereignty in order to continue operating, yet Rav Isser Zalman categorically refused to abandon his rabbinical responsibilities to his community. Shteim-esrei vchetzi twelve-thirty, came the answer. He locked his arm with Rav Aharons arm and they walked through the door together. The Va'ad Hatzalah brought Rabbi Kotler out of Nazi controlled Europe, where he had been a highly regarded scholar and the head of the Yeshiva in Kletsk. While he reverted back to the prestigious Pines name later on in life, his son Arke would maintain the Kotler surname, and ensure that it would become a name enshrined with gold letters in the history of the Jewish nation. The economy was finally on the upswing, but the depression wouldnt end until 1939 and funds were still tight for many. His first order of business upon arrival in the spring of 1941 was to breathe new life into the splintered Vaad Hatzalah organization in order to revitalize its efforts to rescue Torah scholars and yeshivah students. Young Aharon was left alone, bereft of both parents in a volatile world. He commissioned Rav Reuven Grozovsky with the unenviable task of censoring Rav Aharons mail. Rabbi Aharon Kotler " Rosh Yeshivah, Beth Medrash Govoha, Lakewood, New Jersey Date of Death: Thu. The city of Vilna and its environs had been incorporated into the Second Polish Republic after World War I. After a certain point, the Alter no longer worried about Rav Aharon being influenced negatively and set out on another mission: to prepare Rav Aharon to be a Torah leader. I like the look of this Jew. On March 12, 1943, the sale was completed. To rescue such a child and give him the chance to study Torah, there is no greater chesed in the world! His curiosity got the better of him, and he struck up a conversation. America, Rav Mordechai Shapiro answered. He didnt have to think over what he was saying, and what he wanted to say now. Rav Aharon returned home prior to Elul of 1936 with a feeling of satisfaction, knowing he had saved the yeshivah in Kletzk from potential closure and could pay up its debts. ISBN9781510770232. One Erev Shabbos he saw a small kiosk in Tel Aviv, and someone asked the proprietor for a pack of cigarettes. This second group included people like Irving Bunim and his son Amos, Stephen Klein, Samuel Feuerstein and his son Moses, Mike Tress, Rabbi Moshe Sherer, Marvin Schick, Zev Wolfson, Rabbi Henoch Cohen, Julius Klugman, Ernst Bodenheimer and others. Rav Beinush Finkel shared that on the day that Rav Noach left for Mir, Rav Aharon was absent from the yeshivah. No such thing. They also began to open small hotels that were marketed as kosher to cater to Jewish clientele. This is his story. Rav Aharon very much enjoyed zemiros and while not personally blessed with a good voice, he would encourage his talmidim to sing for him, most famously Shlomo Carlebach and Rav Elyakim Getzel Rosenblatt. Succumbing to a long battle with stomach cancer, Rav Chaim Ozer passed away on August 9. Everyone knew that Arke Sislovitcher was artfully entitled by the lomdishe world with the words tzaneh malei safra a basket full of seforim. And an oker harim vetachnan zeh bazeh one who uproots mountains and grinds them one against the other.. American rabbi; founder of Beth Medrash Govoha, World War II and move to the United States, "Rabbi Aaron Kotler Dead at 71; Jersey Rabbinical School Dean", "Enrollment in the N.J. Still, Rav Isser Zalman told me, He didnt say a word, or ever let on anything to that effect, and set out to make sure things went smoothly. Thus was the greatness of Rav Moshe Mordechai.. You may leave now, he said, but well be keeping a close eye on you and your group.. The Vaad Hatzalah had been able to procure limited above-quota visas designated for clergy, and Rav Aharon was offered one. The Yevsektsiya rightly recognized that Yiddishkeit could never coexist with Communism, and therefore aimed to destroy all institutions representing nationalism, culture and especially religion, from the traditional cheder and its melamed to the yeshivah and its dean. Oftentimes it wasnt limited to mere abandonment of religion; it was openly hostile toward mitzvah observance. After a couple of days Rav Shraga Feivel approached Rav Aharon and proposed that he stay in the position long term. Hashem gave you these abilities, he is the one who gave you the power to be successful. Startled, she asked if anything was wrong. He shared his reminiscences: Before Rav Aharon would say the shiur for the entire yeshivah, he would first go over the shiur with a few select talmidim. From that point on, every day the principal would send the young genius fresh eggs, fruit and other vegetables. Along with another young activist named Moshe Berger, the duo spent the entire night drafting a new dossier, after which Mike got on a 5:00 a.m. train to Washington and managed to find a sympathetic State Department official to send an authorization letter to the US Embassy in Moscow. He managed to view even his beloved yeshivah, which carried his hope and vision for the future of American Jewry, through the pure prism of his priorities in building Torah worldwide at any given moment. (Nearly a century later, these two illustrious families came together once again when Rav Moshe Mordechais great-grandson, Rav Yosef Chevroni current rosh yeshivah of Chevron-Slabodka married Sarah Bakst, a great-granddaughter of Rav Archik. It didnt take long for Arke Sislovitzer to be noticed. November 29, 1962 - Kislev 2 5723 Anyone with biographical information is asked to please send it in. To that end, the American Hebrew Theological University was chartered in 1946 and was set to open in Brooklyn with the endorsement and involvement of prominent roshei yeshivah as a way of contending with the college issue. Rav Aharon would occasionally remark, You know the shiur like you know Peking, China!When some of the Kletzker students fled to China during the war, theyd quip, Now at least we know China!). But the community didnt flourish. When I talk about Rav Aaron and mibeis abba, I dont mean just his scholarship, his Torah, but the qualities of a gadol, the warmth and other great middos. (This proverbial rite of passage was adapted by many roshei yeshivah, Rav Aharon among them. He had just a handful of students at first, but he knew the yeshivah would grow. Under the direction of Rav Chaim Ozer and several of the leading roshei yeshivah of the 1920s, the Vaad HaYeshivos oversaw a fundraising and distribution apparatus that attempted to somewhat alleviate the burden sustained by each individual institution. The Shechinah shines from him!. At first, he was reluctant, claiming that it was a resort where people came for pleasure and vanity, and not fit for a spiritual center. So he came back the next day, well prepared. In 1938 the journalist Hirsch Movshowitz (under the pseudonym M. Gertz) shared memories of his time in Slabodka in the Riga-based Yiddish newspaper Haynt in an article entitled: The Once-in-a Generation Gaon, HaRav Aharon Kotler, excerpted below: Thirty-two years ago, when I came to Yeshivas Slabodka, Knesses Yisrael had a number of bochurim that were renowned giants in Torah. He never ceased to praise the tireless efforts and the exceptional brilliance of Rav Aharon. For a time, Jews were actually forbidden from staying in the two Lakewood hotels he built. Rav Aharon took an active and eventually leading role. With his arrival in Slabodka, he enjoyed a . Due to fundraising concerns, yeshivos generally refrained from overt association of this sort. The news of Volozhins closure spread quickly as students returned home to their respective cities and villages, among them the town of visa (Sislovitz), located 250 kilometers from Volozhin in Grodno Province, where a respected alumnus of the yeshivah, a rav named Rav Shneur Zalman Pines, was hosting a bris for his son, whom he named Aharon. That was Tof-shin-yud-gimmel, through Tof-shin-yud-zayin [2], '53-'57, approximately. The rabbinate in Slutzk was one of the most prestigious in the region, having previously been held by Rav Yossel Peimer (Slutzker); the Beis Halevi, Rav Yosef Dov Halevi Soloveitchik; and later Rav Yechezkel Abramsky. She asked for nothing for herself, refusing to as much as buy a new dress when she saw that others around her were lacking. Now the entire landscape has changed. Rather, it is the clarion call that brought a revolution to Americas yeshivah world. Senior activists advised Rav Aharon that this plan was a fools errand. Aharon Kotler (February 2, 1892 November 29, 1962) was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and a prominent leader of Orthodox Judaism in Lithuania and the United States; the latter being where he founded Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood Township, New Jersey. A story is told regarding the brothers-in-law. Rav Aharon Kotler was one of the very few Torah giants who contributed mightily to the transformation of the face of American Jewry in the middle of the twentieth century from one of Torah ignorance and mourning over the Holocaust to significant progress in Torah knowledge and partial recovery from the tragedy of the Holocaust. That isnt where the story ends, however. Father often used to challenge balabatim, Rav Aharons daughter Rebbetzin Sarah Schwartzman told Professor William Helmreich. His elder daughter Malka was ensnared by the secularist movements that captured the hearts and minds of the local youth. To that end, pushkes were distributed to shuls and private homes, a publicity campaign was launched to encourage the public to donate in the local pushkes, and gabbaim were hired to oversee operations in each locality and empty the pushkes at regular intervals. Utilizing the emergency visa obtained for him by the Vaad Hatzalah, he, his wife, and daughter received their Soviet exit visas and departed Lithuania for Moscow on February 7, 1941. Rav Aharon treated Rebbitzen Rischel with the greatest love and sensitivity. In the 1890s, the Hafetz Hayim had published an entire book to deter Jews from jour Perhaps Rav Aharons boldest project was undertaken in the last decade of his life, when he initiated the founding of Chinuch Atzmai in 1953. Ich hobnoch a sach oiftzitohn far Torah I still have much to accomplish for Torah!. Rav Isser Zalman also exerted pressure on him to depart, writing to him urgently, Lama atem yoshvim al har goesh kazeh Why are you sitting on top of a volcano?. But even as Rav Aharon continued guiding the Vaad, he also turned his attention to another project: a trailblazing yeshivah in America, now known as Americas Torah capital. He examined the two boys with his piercing eyes. Brother of Malka Pines and Dvora Czerbuchowski. A bird looks around and sees that it was created with wings, thereby it knows that it was endowed with special powers to be able to fly. Rav Ruderman remained bothered by this for quite some time. (Perhaps they did not want to embarrass him; nevertheless, it was a great source of pain.) Rav Noach himself was questioned as to his preference to which he responded softly that had he wanted to stay in Kletzk, he never would have come to Mir. Standing (left to right) beginning with Rabbi Nissan Waxman (with mustache): Rabbi Shemaryahu Gurary, Rabbi Shlomo Aron Kazarnovsky, Rabbi Nissan Mindel and Rabbi Chaim Lieberman. A handful of these improvised yeshivos became formal institutions and gained some renown, such as the famous Blumkas Kloiz and a yeshivah run by Rav Shlomo Goloventzitz, which served as a feeder for Slabodka. Rav Aharon was once in the midst of delivering a shiur in Kletzk during the snowy winter when the chimney became clogged. While their fellow Jews were suffering in Europe, there were no sweets or meat to be found, with the exception of Shabbos. Following a quick stop in Cincinnati, he arrived at Penn Station on April 21, 1941. Her descendants include the leadership of Chevron-Slabodka, Beth Medrash Govoha, Ner Israel, and other Torah institutions. On that day in 1941, Rav Aharon described thechain of Torah that commenced at Har Sinai andwas composed of links of various quality someof precious metals and others of baser materials.He described the historical sequence of thetransmission of Torah from Rabban Yochanan benZakkai through the Rishonim and finished withrecent Torah leaders: Rav Chaim Brisker, Rav MeirSimchah of Dvinsk, and Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski.Reaching a fevered pitch, he began his plea, urgingthe assembled yeshivah students to forge anotherlink in the dynastic chain. He decided to consult with Rav Aharon who told him, Bshum oifen nisht! Rav Aharon was once delivering a shiur in Kletzk when a stranger entered. On Friday afternoon Rebbetzin Chana Perel Kotler advised a group of yeshivah students to wire Rav Aharon and inquire whether to pursue the original plan due to the changing circumstances on the ground. In order to evade conscription, Rav Moshe obtained papers that named Shneur Zalman the only son of the Kotler family, thus exempting him from the draconian Czarist decree. Who are you to speak in the presence of gedolei hador? Rav Chaim Ozer retorted, Der yungerman darf men tzu heren vail der nexter dor vet zein oif zein pleitzis we must pay attention to what this young man has to say, because the next generation will rest on his shoulders!, This point is further reinforced by a story shared by Rav Aharon Lopiansky. Rav Aharon told me of their experience and emotions in leaving Kletzk. This further deepened the yeshivahs deficit. He was murdered in the Yanova Ghetto along with his community. [Likewise,] if a Jew puts in effort and is successful, he knows that he cannot take credit for himself, he cannot show off.
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