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זיך איינגעשריבן אום: מיטוואך אקטאבער 10, 2012 10:00 pm

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ריכטיג אז די מ"א זענען פרומע אידן און שומרי תורה ומצוות.

אבער זייער מדריגה אין אידישקייט איז היינט עפ"י רוב גאר שוואך, דהיינו טייל נשים גייען הויזן, און תערובות ביי שמחות איז נארמאל ליידער, וכהנה.
מען רעדט אודאי נישט פון מחללי שבתות וכו'.

אבער די יאנג איזרעל שולן איז לאו דוקא אלעס מ"א.
אין די מקומות איז א בחינה פון די יארן אין אמעריקא פארן קריג, עס איז דא פרומערע קהילות און מער שוואכע, תלוי לויט די געגנט וכו'.
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זיך איינגעשריבן אום: מאנטאג יולי 16, 2012 11:11 am
לאקאציע: אדערע זייט שאך ברעט פון חמרא טבא

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SPUSMN האט געשריבן:................
ריכטיג, און אויך וואס דריידל האט געברענגט איז אויך ריכטיג. איין שוהל איז נישט אין גאנצען גלייך צו א צווייטען, און צוויי גרויסע עקסעפשאן'ס זענען געווען די יאנג איזראעל פון ווילאמסבורג, און יאנג איזראעל אוו ראגבי ווי הג"ר אביגדור מיללער איז געווען רב. (ביידע האבען געהאט א פרומערע עלעמענט)

הרה"ק יעקב לייזער זצ"ל שלימים נודע בשם האדמו"ר מפשעווארסק באנטווערפען זצ"ל איז געווען מ"מ אין בה"מ איו בעיסמענט וואס האט געהאט די אריינגאנג אין די זייט אויף ראדני
גאר אן אנדערער עלעמענט ווי אויבען אין די גרויסע שול
איך געדענק פון ילדותי שנות תש"י- כ ווי עס האבן אויסגעזעהן די טרעפ אויף די בעדפארד זייט בכלל נישט אויסגעהעלטען לםי גדרי הצניעות "בחורים וגם...."
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יאנג איזראעל אוו ראגבי ווי הג"ר אביגדור מיללער האט געמאכט א מהפכה
זיין תלמיד דר יצחק לעווין . האט געשריבן:
Dr. Yitzchok Levine
RAV AVIGDOR MILLER: THE LATER YEARS
Editor's Note: This is the third and concluding installment in a series of articles on the life of
Rav Avigdor Miller, zt"l, the first of which appeared in the issue of April 30, the second on
June 4.
From 1946 to 1975 Rav Miller was the rav of the Young Israel of Rugby in the East Flatbush
section of Brooklyn. In 1975 the shul relocated to Ocean Parkway near Avenue R and was
subsequently called Bais Yisroel Torah Center. Rav Miller served as the rav there until his
passing in 2001.
In the nineteen-forties the Young Israel of Rugby was a shul similar to most Young Israel
synagogues of the time. Its members represented a spectrum of observance from shomrei
Shabbos to those who were not observant and came to shul on the 'High Holidays' for
yahrzeits and yizkor. Most of the congregants did not have an extensive Torah education. In
1946 Rav Miller was offered the position of rav. I doubt any of the congregants realized what
they were getting when they hired him.
Rav Yisroel Salanter is purported to have said, "Any rav whom the ba'alei batim do not want to
get rid of is not a real rav, and any rav whom the ba'alei batim do get rid of is not a mensch!"
What he meant is that the job of a rav is to raise the level of his congregants. To do this, he
has to make them feel uncomfortable, because someone who is comfortable with his way of
life will see no reason to change. On the other hand, if the rav puts too much pressure on the
people, they will rebel and fire him. I have a feeling Rav Miller had this in mind when he set
about changing the lives of his congregants.
How does a rav uplift the level of Torah observance of his ba'alei batim? How does he take
men and women with limited or in some cases virtually no background in learning and
transform them into people who come regularly to shiurim?
Most rabbonim have taken the approach of being mekarav people by sugar-coating their
words and refraining, at least publicly, from saying things that the congregants do not want to
hear. Not so Rav Avigdor Miller. He felt it was his job to 'tell it the way it is,' even though this
meant that some would be uncomfortable when they heard his words.
While it was by no means his intention to drive people away, if people left the shul because
they did not like what he said, then so be it. More than once I heard him say something to the
effect of, "This is the truth. You probably haven't heard it anywhere else before. You may not
like it, but, nonetheless, what you are hearing is the truth!"
Murray M. and his wife were newlyweds when they begandavening in the Young Israel of Rugby
in the late forties. Murray told me that the president would come to shul on Shabbos morning and
then go play tennis in the afternoon. Rav Miller often spoke about the importance of keeping
Shabbos. It did not taketoo long before this president left the shul. Others who behaved
similarly did the same. Those who remained, however, became staunch followers of Rav Miller.
They found their commitment to Shabbos and the observance of other mitzvos strengthened by his
words.
One should not get the impression that Rav Miller was not attuned to the feelings and thoughts of his
congregants.
His words from the bimah where indeed hard hitting, but in his personal dealings with his
congregants he always tried to draw them close to Torah observance through encouragement.
Murray told me that while he lived in East Flatbush there was a young couples group that met
Friday evenings after the seudah. It is well known that Rav Miller jealously guarded his time
and devoted as much of it as possible to Torah learning and teaching. Despite this, Rav Miller
regularly attended these gatherings. Recalled Murray: "He would come, listen attentively, but
never say a word. At the end he would leave, wishing each of us a 'Good Shabbos.' "

Perhaps Rav Miller was 'taking the pulse' of the younger generation so that he would know
how best to deal with them.
A Master Pedagogue
Rav Miller was known for his hasmoda. However, despite - or perhaps more correctly because
of - his unbelievable commitment to his own Torah learning, he found time to constantly give
shiurim and lectures on a wide variety of topics.
Initially Rav Miller gave shiurim in the Young Israel of Rugby on such topics as Mishna, Chayei
Odom and Ein Yaakov. In 1967 a visiting gadol encouraged Rav Miller to set higher goals for
his congregants and teach them 'gantz shas.' Hearing this, Rav Miller began to teach Gemara
to a group of about fifteen men, many of whom had little or no yeshiva background. Little did
they know they were embarking upon a journey that would change their lives.
Rav Miller always emphasized that one had to 'get the language of the Gemara into one's
mouth.' He urged those who came to his shiurim to repeat the Gemara over and over again.
"Practice it until you can say the blat like you say Ashrei!" he often would say. More than once
I heard him observe that 'there are people who attend Gemara shiurim for years, and yet they
cannot read a piece of Gemara fluently.'
He began teaching Shnayim Ochazim B'Talis and basically started with Aleph Bais. It took a
year to cover three blatt of Gemara. Yet at the end of that year all of his talmidim knew it cold.
One marvels at how a man who had studied in one of the finest yeshivas in the world found
the patience to teach on this level. When one thinks of the self-control it must have taken, it
becomes even more impressive.
From this humble beginning the group went on to greater achievements. Additional shiurim
were added, and with each passing year more and more people attended them. Someone
once commented, "Most rabbonim take bnei Torah and make balabatim out of them. Rav Miller
takes balabatim and makes bnei Torah out of them."
To what extent did Rav Miller raise the level of his congregants? Let me share with you an
experience I had in 1973. Rav Miller was still in the 'old' neighborhood, and I spent a Shabbos
at the Young Israel of Rugby that I will never forget. It was especially memorable because I
had the privilege of eating the Friday evening seudah in his home.
On Shabbos afternoon, a little more than an hour before Mincha, Rav Miller and I and some
others walked to shul where he gave an hour-long hashkafa shiur. We then davened Mincha
and ate seuda shlishis. When bentching was concluded, there was still some time - about
twenty minutes - until Maariv. Everyone went upstairs, took out a sefer and began to learn. I
had never seen anything like this in any other place I had davened. No one was schmoozing.
Instead, every man was engrossed in his learning.
Bais Yisroel Torah Center
In 1975 Rav Miller relocated his shul to the Flatbush section of Brooklyn and renamed it Bais
Yisroel Torah Center. Here he expanded the number of shiurim he gave to an average of three
a day. There were also his Shabbos droshos, his weekly hourly talk before Mincha on
Shabbos, his Chovos Halevavos classes on Friday evenings during the winter, the learning of
halacha between Mincha and Maariv, his regular Thursday evening hashkafa shiurim, and
much more. It is difficult to understand how he could maintain such a demanding schedule
while devoting countless hours to his own private learning, but he did. This is all the more
remarkable when one considers that each Gemara shiur he gave at a fixed time and day was
devoted to either a different perek in the Gemara he was learning that year or to a different
mesechta entirely.
Thursday Evening Hashkafa Shiurim
Rav Miller became famous for his Thursday evening lectures which dealt with a wide variety of
topics. One never knew what he would start with and where he would end up during these
talks. In addition, there was an open question and answer period at the end, and it is here that
one got a taste for Rav Miller's breadth of Torah and secular knowledge. Virtually anything
could be asked, and it was. Amazingly, he always had a ready, well thought-out answer, no
matter what the question.
Tapes of these talks were made available beginning in the early seventies at a nominal fee,
and people from all over the world ordered them. Here was a man who sat in a small shul in
Brooklyn whose Torah was heard worldwide. Through these tapes and his books he
influenced countless individuals. There are even those who never met him who consider him
their rebbe. Rav Miller understood the power of technology and utilized it to spread his Torah
teachings far and wide.
Appropriating His Time
Rav Miller always guarded his time jealously and, whenever possible, used it for either
teaching or learning. When asked to attend this or that simcha or other event, he would
usually decline, saying, "I have to study for my final exam." If the person to whom he was
talking didn't understand what he meant, he would explain that he was going to be examined in
the World to Come and wanted to be prepared.
Sometime in the 1980's he told me he once wanted to go to the Lubavitcher Rebbe for advice
on how he should spend his remaining years. "Should I stop giving shiurim and concentrate on
clinching all of my learning" Or, perhaps I should give more shiurim and thus help others to a
greater extent.?
He went on to relate that he had made an appointment to see the Lubavitcher Rebbe. "But
when I heard you had to go at two in the morning, I canceled my appointment! I never go
anywhere that late at night. I am always in bed by eleven-thirty at the latest." I then asked how
he had resolved his dilemma, and he replied, "By doing some of both, reviewing my learning
as much as possible and giving shiurim."
Straining the Emunah
Rav Miller was a 'rationalist' and would dismiss any story that smacked of the esoteric with a
wave of his hand, saying, "We are not m'chuyev to believe such a story." I once related to him
a story that Rav Chaim Volozhin had written about the Vilna Gaon as part of the introduction to
one of the Gaon's seforim. Rav Chaim wanted to prove that the Gaon was an expert in
Kabbalah and related an amazing story about the Gaon teaching his chiddushim in Kabbalah
to the AriZal and Reb Shimon Bar Yochai.
Rav Miller waved away the story, despite the fact that it came from an impeccable source. I
then asked why he always dismissed such stories out of hand. He replied, "Our emunah is
strained enough by what we are required to believe. To add anything more is not wise."
Only later, when I became familiar with the Shabbtai Tzvi movement and the outlandish things
that people who lived at that time believed did I begin to appreciate the wisdom of his words.
Rav Miller was an expert in history, and, of course, he knew what he was talking about.
The Sum of a Great Man
One cannot do justice to a man as great as Rav Miller in a few articles. The many things he
did, his influence on others, his commitment to Yiddishkeit, his idealism, his hasmoda and so
much more, cannot be easily summarized. Perhaps the words that appear on a plaque in his
shul give some indication of the measure of the man. The plaque is dedicated to his memory,
and the English part of it reads:
OUR BELOVED REBBE
WHO LED AND GUIDED OUR KEHILLAH FOR 53 YEARS INSTRUCTED US IN TORAS
HASHEM DAY AND NIGHT SHOWED US HOW TO RECOGNIZE HAKODOSH BORUCH HU
THROUGH HIS GREATNESS TIRELESSLY AND ELOQUENTLY LED THE BATTLE FOR
THE HONOR OF HASHEM AND THE TRUTH OF HIS TORAH INSPIRED US TO
ACCOMPLISHMENT IN LIMUD HATORAH AND PERFECTION OF CHARACTER TRAINED
US TO BE AWARE ALWAYS OF HASHEM YISBORACH, AND TO EXPRESS ENDLESS
GRATITUDE TO THE BOREI OLOM FOR ALL THE DETAILS OF OUR LIVES AND TAUGHT
US TO VIEW THE WORLD THROUGH THE HASHKOFOS HATORAH
DEDICATED BY HIS TALMIDIM, WHO ARE ETERNALLY GRATEFUL



ר מרדכי קאמעמעצקי האט געשריבן:
Rabbanus

Two years after arriving in New York, he took a position at the Young Israel of Rugby. Orthodoxy in America was still at its budding stages, and Rabbi Miller had an arduous task of incorporating his non-compromising opinions and perspectives into a kehillah that was very satisfied with its level of Yiddishkeit.

Many members left the shul. "It was the needle speech that did it for my family!" one member whose father left, told me.
“Needle speech?” I asked. The man smiled.
"One Shabbos, Rav Miller spoke about carrying. In those days, many people were not aware of the issur of carrying a handkerchief or small items. But Rabbi Miller, he told it like it was! ‘If you carry even a needle, you are chayiv misah!’ That was too much for us.”
Those who remained, however, became more than mispallelim, they became Talmidim!

גם אני מצטרף לבקשתו של ידידני מבראונזוויל
ענגליש? נוצט דעם Left קנעפל


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ALL FOR THE BOSS


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זיך איינגעשריבן אום: זונטאג מארטש 26, 2017 7:47 am

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קעפל: ר' שלום מרדכי וועבערמאן מטיסא-ליק ז"ל

מיללער האט געשריבן:א באשרייבונג אויף ענגליש איבער ר' בנציון ב"ר משה וועבערמאן.

מען זעהט אז ר' משה איז געווען א שו"ב און א מוהל, און ער האט אנגעפירט א כשר'ע עסן געשעפט אין ניו יארק.

דער באקאנטער ר' בנימין ווילעהלם ע"ה פון וומ"ס איז געווען אן איידעם ביי ר' משה וועבערמאן.

Ben Zion Weberman (1896-1968): Life and Legacy of an Orthodox Jewish Attorney in New York City During the Interwar Period and Beyond

By Moshe Rapaport
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President of the Williamsburg branch of Young Israel in 1925, he left the organization because of their refusal to abandon mixed dancing (between men and women, which he viewed as counter to the Torah).
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