By L. Halevi. The large hall at Ateres Chana-  Bais Faiga in Lakewood was quickly filled to capacity this past Sunday night, as community members from across Lakewood and its environs –  Roshei Yeshiva, Rabbanim, Mechanchim, Yungeleit,Bochurim as well as Askanim, Balabatim and thousands of people from all backgrounds and all ages – thronged to participate in the communal Hesped to commemorate the shloshim of the Gadol Hador, Maran Hagaon Harav Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, ZT”L.

The evening began at 9pm with a large Minyan for Maariv, led by Rav Dovid Heineman, Shlita, with the thunderous voices of “Shma Yisroel” and  “Yehei Shmei Rabbah” fittingly setting the tone of Kvod Shomayim for the evening ahead.

The opening Hesped was delivered by Rav Shmuel Kamenetzky, Rosh Yeshiva of the Philadelphia Yeshiva. “It’s hard to speak about such a person. The doctors couldn’t believe how his life went on, as it defied physical strength” said Rav Kamenetzky, “which means that his life wasn’t a regular life, it was a life of Klal Yisroel. There was nothing in his life for himself, it was all for others, it was all for Klal Yisroel”.

“We have to realize what the world is now missing. His essence was for others, and that essence is now missing in our world. He was totally pure. All he was concerned with was what he could do for the world. This was his entire Metziyus”.

“It is impossible to measure how much his existence gave to the world. He didn’t speak a lot, but every word he uttered was in the service of others, how he can help others. We must all emulate his ways and think to ourselves, what little more can we do, what can we change in our life, to fill the void – even a little bit – of what the Gaon of the generation  left behind, and this will be a tremendous zechus for him as well.”

“ ‘Avad Chasid Min Ha’aretz’ means that his purity is no longer on this earth, it is now in Shomayim, and our world is lacking.”

“He used to prepare water before Pesach for the entire Pesach, as a personal chumrah. On the first Pesach of his marriage, his Rebbetzin forgot to prepare it and she was beside herself. He told her not to worry that it is only a personal chumrah, and not something important, and it’s not a big deal. From that year on he stopped doing that chumrah, something he was always careful with, in order not to hurt his wife’s feeling. After she passed away, he called his daughter in and told her that he will once again be stringent on his chumrah. This shows us that his whole existence was concerned with not hurting the feelings of others. The greatness of a person is seen from the small things, not from the big things. “

The next speaker was Rav Aryeh Malkiel Kotler, Rosh Yeshiva of Bais Medrash Govoha Lakewood. He began by discussing how Rav Shteinman launched a network of Torah schools, Orchos Torah, for over 3,000 talmidim, when he was in his mid-80s. “It’s an incredible thing that someone at that advanced age decided that everything he accomplished in the past 80 years wasn’t sufficient, and he needed to embark on  a whole new undertaking”.

“This network of Yeshivos was not just a place for students to learn, it was a source of Shimush Talmidei Chachamim, a place where the talmidim learnt from their Rebbi, Rav Shteinman, as well as from all the other Rebbeim across the Yeshivos in the network, and an eternal testament to him; it’s where his life continues to live well beyond his passing.”

“The Gemara says that it is impossible to cleave to the Ribono Shel Olam, rather the way we can cleave to Hashem is through being connected to Talmidei Chachamim. That is accomplished by establishing Yeshivos. They started out  “Al yado”  and now continue  via ”L’hoshiv Yeshiva Al  Al Kivro”, as his talmidim, and all of Klal Yisroel,  look to him as a guide for how to live our own lives.

“Although he wrote in his Tzava’ah not to give Hespedim on him, Rav Chaim Kanievsky, Shlita already ruled that it is OK to do so. I think the reason is that on his own Torah he can forgo the kavod, but for the legacy that he left for us to learn from and emulate, this belongs to Klal Yisroel and it’s not his to forgo, and thus we are permitted to stand here and be maspid him and take hisoreros from his life.”

The next speaker was Rav Yitzchok Sorotzkin, Rosh Yeshivas Telshe and Lakewood Mesivta. “Rav Aharon Leib was the manhig Yisroel and the father of klal Yisroel” thundered Rav Sorotzkin.

“He was born in Brisk and at the age of 12 he entered the Yeshiva of Rav Moshe Sokolofsky, where most of the bochurim were quite a few years older than him. He was known as an Illui, a masmid and a Yerei Shomayim, virtually his entire life!”

“During the war, he ran, together with Rav Moshe Soloveitzik to Switzerland. Before he left, he received a letter from the Brisker Rav, in which the Rav referred to him as a  ‘gaon, charif, amkan, and baki and yerei shomayom who is  muchshar to be gadol’. The Brisker Rav wasn’t someone who uttered a false word and wasn’t one to write superfluous titles that he didn’t feel were authentically true. This was back when he was a very young man, and already the Brisker Rav, the Brisker Dayan and other Gedolim of the time saw in him Gadlus!”

“When he went in to speak to the Chazon Ish, the Chazon Ish, who was many decades his senior and the Raban Shel Yisroel,  stood up for him  ‘Meloi Komaso’ and escorted him to the door as he left. Rav Chaim Kanievsky, Shlita recounted that he was once there, and the Chazon Ish instructed him to escort Rav Aharon Leib even further; such was the Kavod that the Chazon Ish had for  the Rosh Yeshiva, Zt”l!”

“When bochurim would tell the Chazon Ish that they learn in the Yeshiva in Kfar Saba, where Rav Aharon Leib was the Rosh Yeshiva in the early years, the Chazon Ish would tell them, ‘You are learning  from a lebedige Sefer Torah’.”

The Ponovezh Rav, in 1955, appointed him as  Rosh Kolel. He told the Yungeleit in the Kollel at the time that their new Rosh Kollel will eventually be the  Gadol hador. Rav Don Segal, who was a yungerman in the Ponovezh Kollel at the time remembers the Ponovezh Rav telling them that Rav Aharon Leib is clear in kol hatorah kulah and one can ask him anything at all, be it in learning, hashkafa or hadracha, and will receive a crystal Da’as Torah response. This was already in 1955. Do the math!”

“The Ponovezh Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Gershon Edelstein, Shlita, said eidus, that over the years he spoke to Rav Aharon Lein in learning on many topics, and no matter what was discussed it was as if Rav Aharon Leib was currently learning that sugya. That’s how clear the entire Torah was to him! He knew Shas yashar v’hafuch. Every Tosefos in Shas was open to him. When he was in In Switzerland with Rav Moshe Soloveitzik, the government mandated that everyone report for work duty, and they were not exempt. They had no sefarim with them, no Gemaros, so, together , they chazered Masechtos Bava Kama and Kesuvos, from memory, reviewing every single Tosefos. One would say the Kushya of Tosefos and the other would say the Tirutz, and this went on until they finished 2 complete Masechtos!”

“When he gave bechinos to bochurim and Yungeleit, he never needed Gemara. He knew everywhere. Rav Gershon Edelstein said that his memory was amazing, as besides kishron it was siyata dishmaya that you get only through yegiya, as Rashi  at the end of Yevamos says,  through yegiyah you remember.”

“The Gemara in Chagigah famously teaches that we can’t copare one who learns something 100  times and one who learns it 101 times. Rav Refoel Hamburg explains that If you give the gantze kochos, you can go beyond physical kochos, which is signified by 101, and the Torah becomes yours and you have different kochos. Also, the Bais Haleivi teaches that learning Torah L’shma is what gives strength to remember, as then we are davuk in Hashem, and we are learning the Eibeshter’s Torah, and thus we won’t be able to forget. This was Rav Aharon Leib!

Rav Sorotzkin continued with his passionate Hesped, giving some examples of the Yegiya and Hasmada of Rav Aharon Leib.

“When he arrived in the Yeshiva as a young boy, the older boys were not so thrilled to have a  bochur so young amongst them, so they decided to pull a prank and place a doll in his bed, to signify him being the “ juvenile” bochur.  The doll remained there in the bed, untouched, for a few weeks, until they realized he never laid down in that bed. He stayed in the Bais Medrash for weeks on end, where he fell asleep learning on his shtender when his strength gave out. Such was his Yegias Hatorah already as a young boy!”

“After his chasuna, in Lugano, somebody walked past the Beis Medrash and noticed that there was a smell of fire and upon running into the Beis Medrash found Rav  Aharon Leib sitting near the oven learning,  and his jacket was burning, and he didn’t even realize it from being engrossed in Torah. This is Dveikus B’Hashem. This is Ahavas Hashem.”

“He fasted a lot. The second time he came to America to be Mechazek Klal Yisroel, no good pictures were able to be taken of him. Nobody understood why. His son asked and he told him, ‘My whole life I run away from kavod, as it is poison and causes me to not be pure for learning Torah. After my first trip to America, where I got so much Kavod, I fasted 40 taneisim to eradicate the impurity I felt from the Kavod. Kavod for me is Mesiras Nefesh, as I am giving away my purity. On the second trip, when I was already much older, I had no strength to fast for 40 days so I decided I cannot be Moser Nefesh and accept Kavod, so I avoided all the pictures!”

“He didn’t take pleasure in this world. He ate porridge that tasted like lyme. At age 8 he accepted upon himself to not take pleasures from this world. He had no  back on his rickety  chair, and no luxuries.  He lived a life of ‘Prishus’, a life of Torah L’shma, as the Rambam writes, only a very few people reach the level. He was perceived by Klal Yisroel as another Chofetz chaim, or as people used to refer to him, as ‘The Chazon Ish from Kfar Saba’!”

“Rav Elya Weintraub, a neighbor to Rav Aharon Leib, and himself a porush and Tzadik of the highest caliber, quipped about Rav Aharon Leib, that his Derech Hachaim was me’in the prishus of the Vilna Gaon; definitely from the previous generations, like a Malach Elokim”

“Rav Dov Landau said about Rav Aharon Leib that he was the quintessential Ish Emes. With his passing “Avad Emes Min Ha’Olam” we no longer have anyone who is pure Emes to lead us. We say these stories as we have to have higher hasagos, and studying his life, where his goal was to become “Merkavah L’Shchinah” helps us have higher dargos.”

Rav Sorotzkin continued telling over many stories to depict the Gadlus, the Emes and the Kedusah of the Gadol Hador, in his dynamic and inimitable way and the entire Tzibur was spellbound by his every word.

The next speaker, a special guest from Eretz Yisroel, was a close talmid of Rav Aharon Leib, and Mashgiach in Yeshiva Orchos Torah in Bnei Brak, Rav Chizkiyahu Mishkovsky.

“Yesomim Hayinu V’Ein Av”

“I am like a son to Maran, Zt”l and I can’t say a hesped, I can only stand here and cry” began Rav Mishkovsky, in a tearful voice.

“The Rosh Yeshiva, zt’l was a link to the previous generations. We saw with our own eyes such gadlus. The Chevrah Kadish said that he passed away with closed hands, unlike most people, and that they last saw that by Rav Chatzkel Levenstein. Zt”l,  which according to the Chasam Sofer and others, is a sign of a true Tzadik who took nothing from this world”

“He was a Malach. We saw Kedusah. We saw Mofsim by our holy Rebbi.” He proceeded to recount a few powerful stories which showed clearly how Rav Aharon Leib’s brachos and chizuk literally saved people’s lives and how every decision he made was steeped in pure Da’as Torah.”

“Somebody once asked Rav Ahrom Leib, ‘Who is your Rebbe?’, he responded, ‘My one Rebbi is the  Yetzer Hara. Whatever he tells me to do, I do the other way’. This is how he lived, with one goal: doing Ratzon Hashem”

“He was our everything. He was our father, or mother, our seichel. He said he never forgot a talmid. He remembered what he learnt, what he’s currently doing, down to the last detail. This is a father! We lost a father!”

“He lost virtually all his family during the war. He had times with no food, and had no shortage of personal Tzaros, but no matter what, he lived for others, not worrying about himself.”

“One Yom Kippur he turned to me and remarked, ‘Once a year, the Kohen Gadol enters the Kodesh Hakodoshim. What does the Kohen Gadol daven for? Mostly gashmiyus. Does this make sense? Is this the best use of the Yom Hakadosh in the Makom Hakadosh?  The answer is, said the Rosh Yeshiva, Zt”l, that the Olam Hazeh of others is our Olam Haba! We have to always worry about making others happy and filling their voids. This was his life for over 100 years!”

“It was a zechus to be able to call myself a Talmid, and may we all do our best to go in his ways and may we be zoche to Techiyas Hameisim to see him again soon”

The hespedim ended close to midnight, and the room was filled to capacity throughout. It was a remarkable display of Kvod Shomayim and Kavod Hatorah, which will surely leave a mark on all who participated, for many years to come.

Yehei Zichro Hatahor V’Hakadosh Baruch.

Photos by Crystal Photography for TLS.