It was on Thursday afternoon about 4 p.m. that I heard the
devastating news that HaRav Kulefsky zt"l was
niftar. Though I knew he had a heart condition, I
didn't know that his condition had been steadily declining
over the last year.
We drove to the yeshiva on Friday morning to join them for
neitz davening at 6:40 a.m. When we reached Mt.
Wilson Lane, the long, winding road that leads to the
yeshiva, we were forced to stop, as the road was blocked off
and men were stationed there, directing traffic and
instructing people where to park their cars. They told those
who were attending the levaya to park their vehicles
in one area and directed anyone who planned to leave early
to another parking area.
The regular tables had disappeared from a large section of
the spacious beis medrash and rows upon rows of
chairs filled the room instead. Immediately following
davening, HaRav Moshe Mintz began reciting
Tehillim, which lasted about a half an hour. Then
HaRav Moshe Brown led a heartfelt recitation of perek
119 until about 8:15 a.m.
The hespedim were over at about 11. As hundreds of
people were melave the aron, walking over the
wide leaf-covered fields surrounding the Yeshiva, the sound
of hundreds of people rustling through the dry leaves
created a most eerie atmosphere. The crowd followed the
aron up the hill leading from the yeshiva's campus to
the main road, and then the aron went to the beis
olom.
All the maspidim spoke about HaRav Kulefsky's
hasmodoh and ameilus beTorah. I think this was
certainly the common thread and most universal theme. More
specifically, the maspidim said he had a tremendous
ameilus in preparing the shiurim and
transmitting them over to his talmidim. This was a
result of his own desire for mesikus haTorah and for
clarity in Torah.
Many people acquired a love and appreciation of the depth
and beauty of Torah by listening to his shiurim. When
HaRav Kulefsky said over divrei Torah, he found equal
importance and enjoyment in repeating other people's Torah
as in saying his own chiddushim. This is a sign of a
true chochom.
HaRav Abrams related that HaRav Kulefsky used to enjoy the
divrei Torah of a certain talmid chochom, and
sought to hear and read whatever he wrote. However, one day
he found out that this person had insulted HaRav Moshe
Feinstein, zt"l. Not only did he stop reading his
Torah, but he sent back all the Torah letters he had
received from him. This ultimately caused HaRav Kulefsky to
also suffer bizyonos from that talmid
chochom.
Years ago, when HaRav Abrams made his son's pidyon
haben, he recorded HaRav Kulefsky's dvar Torah in
honor of the occasion. When he returned to England, he
visited a rebbe of his, an odom godol who is
unknown to the public. When this rav heard the tape, he
exclaimed, "This is a talmid of R' Boruch Ber,
zt"l."
And he was correct. Though he had never learned under R'
Boruch Ber himself in Europe, HaRav Kulefsky was a
talmid of HaRav Reuven Grozovsky in Beis Medrash
Elyon and of HaRav Shlomo Heiman zt"l of Torah
Vodaas, who were both talmidim of R' Boruch Ber
zt"l. Several people made the point that HaRav
Kulefsky was someone who had a mesorah from his
rabbonim.
HaRav Moshe Heinemann said that besides being a great
lamdan he was well versed in the poskim. You
could talk to him in any sugya; he was comfortable in
both the lomdus and psak. HaRav Heinemann
mentioned that HaRav Kulefsky was American born and raised.
Though he grew up in a generation where Torah was scarce in
America, he still rose to a great madreigo. That is
mechayeiv and machazeik us, encouraging us to
be gedolei Torah.
One thing that I personally remember about him is that he
was always oseik in shidduchim. I suppose this
could be put under the heading of being involved with
talmidim which was mentioned prominently by the
maspidim. He was major force in the very successful
Iranian program at Ner Israel, which was a prime example of
his involvement with the talmidim.
HaRav Nosson Kulefsky said that the first time his father
went for open heart surgery, it was in Washington about 20
years ago. For some reason (I think the weather), no one
form the family was present in the morning before he was
brought in to surgery. He wrote a letter to be given to
whoever came, saying that they should be sure to put on his
tefillin, and say over the davening as in the
intensive care unit he would be unable to talk.
His hasmodoh and concentration were legendary.
Everyone known that he always let the talmidim out
for shiur late because he always lost track of the
time when engrossed in Torah.
I think it was HaRav Abrams who said that he remembers when
they got the news in Lakewood that HaRav Aharon Kotler
zt"l was niftar. Everyone was devastated
beyond consolation. The mashgiach, HaRav Nosson
Wachtfogel zt"l, gave a shmuess. He said that
when R' Boruch Ber Leibowitz was niftar, the
bochurim couldn't be consoled, until one of their
rabbeim said that even though our great teacher is
gone, the G-d of our teacher is still with us, as much as
ever. This must be our nechoma as well.
