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IN-DEPTH FEATURES
Part II
The first part discussed R' Yechiel Michel Feinstein's
early years. He was born in Uzda and orphaned at the age of
seven. He went to the yeshiva in Slutsk, where he heard
shiurim from HaRav Aharon Kotler, zt"l. Later
he went to Mir where even as a bochur he became one of
the important figures in the yeshiva. Younger bochurim
used to wait in line to speak with him. His rebbe, R' Isser
Zalman Meltzer zt"l, suggested that he go to learn
under the Brisker Rov, and he did so along with a small group
from the Mir. The Rov was impressed with him immediately.
After two years there, he returned to the Mir.
Grodno
At that time, Reb Michel received a conscription order from
the army. Near Grodno there was a doctor who issued exemption
papers and his only option was to travel there. On his way
back to Mir, he stopped off in Grodno and learned there for
approximately half a year. He would say that Torah's honor
could be witnessed there. Half an hour before Reb Shimon's
shiur was due to begin, everyone would be standing
round the bimah waiting.
HaRav Shmuel Rozovsky, zt'l, who was a talmid
of Reb Shimon Shkop, zt'l, related that a rumor once
went round Grodno that Michel Starobiner was passing through
the town and that his train would be waiting for a few
minutes at the station. The rumor gathered momentum and the
bnei hayeshiva went out to receive Reb Michel.
Reb Michel learned together with Reb Shimon's son, Rav Moshe
Mordechai Shkop. One day they disagreed on a certain point
and went to ask Reb Shimon. After hearing what each one had
to say Reb Shimon said, "Die Brisker is gerecht (The
Brisker is right)."
Once, Reb Michel said, he was with Reb Shimon during the
summer in the town of Luna and wanted to speak with him in
learning when Reb Shimon wanted to rest. (It was Reb Shimon's
practice not to speak in learning while away on vacation.)
Reb Michel went to stand behind Reb Shimon and repeated his
piece of Torah in Reb Shimon's hearing without permission,
leaving him unable to refrain from entering into the topic.
Reb Shimon corrected him and then continued speaking to him
in learning.
HaRav Kalman Gurvitz related that Reb Michel once sent him on
an errand to Rav Yisroel Ze'ev Gustman zt'l. When Rav
Gustman heard whose emissary Rav Gurvitz was, he rose out of
respect and said, "The person who had all of Lithuania in a
commotion, whom Reb Shimon asked to deliver a shiur in
his yeshiva -- one has to stand for the messenger of such a
man!"
Radin
Reb Michel's route to Grodno passed through Radin. When he
went to see the Chofetz Chaim, zt'l they told the
Chofetz Chaim, "There's a bochur here who has learned
Kodshim!"
The Chofetz Chaim asked him, "Have you learned Noshim
and Nezikin already?" to which Reb Michel replied in
the affirmative, adding in later years that at the time he
had also already learned Taharos but he didn't want to
appear proud. He then asked the Chofetz Chaim to bless his
attempt to secure release from army service with success.
The Chofetz Chaim told him, " `Whoever accepts the yoke of
Torah is spared from the yoke of the authorities and of
worldly affairs' (Ovos 5:5) -- ober m'darf
vellen (but one has to want it and accept it
willingly)."
Someone else who was present asked the Chofetz Chaim, "But
bnei hayeshivos do get taken to the army!"
The Chofetz Chaim responded, "Isn't there a mishnah?"
and he started repeating the mishnah, word by
word, counting each word on one of his fingers, "Whoever.
Takes. Upon himself. The yoke . . ."
Reb Michel also related that while he was in the Chofetz
Chaim's room, a chair was brought in for the Chofetz Chaim to
sit on and that he asked for another chair for Reb Michel to
sit on. (This was why, to the end of his life, Reb Michel
would always ask his visitors to sit down.) He would also
emotionally recall the powerful impression that hearing the
Chofetz Chaim's brochos on being called up to the
Torah, made upon him.
After obtaining his exemption, Reb Michel returned to Mir. He
once described what their daily timetable had been. By ten
a.m., shacharis and breakfast were over. They then
learned for five hours until three p.m. Then there was a
break after which they learned for another five hours until
ten p.m. which was followed by ma'ariv. They then
continued learning and in this way, they grew and
developed.
He once asked a talmid, "Do you know when I learned
perek Rabbi Akiva in maseches Shabbos? It was
when I stayed in yeshiva over Pesach and after the seder
with the Mashgiach, I went outside. I saw the moon
and the night was pleasant and cool. I said to myself, `With
such bright moonlight, shall I go to sleep now after the
seder?' I sat down and learned perek Rabbi
Akiva until the morning."
Flight to Vilna
The Second World War broke out with Germany's invasion of
Western Poland, with the eastern part of the country being
ceded to Russia. One night, Reb Michel heard that the
Russians were planning to enter Mir. The following morning,
he told the Rosh Yeshiva and the mashgiach, HaRav
Yechezkel Levenstein, zt'l, that he was fleeing to
Vilna which was still under independent Lithuanian rule. "I
am from Russia," he told them "and I know what they are
like."
When the bnei hayeshiva heard that Michel Starobiner
was leaving for Vilna, they followed him there. The son of
Reb Menachem Karkovsky, the son-in- law of his uncle Reb Elya
Pruzhaner, supplied them with bread from the bakery.
In Vilna, Reb Michel became friendly with Rav Chaim Ozer
Grodzensky, zt'l. One day, he showed Reb Chaim Ozer
his piece of Torah on the topic of "swallowed tumah"
and Reb Chaim Ozer spent forty-five minutes going over it.
Reb Chaim Ozer was in the habit of drinking tea piping hot.
On this occasion he took three quarters of an hour to have
the tea, while he studied Reb Michel's Torah. Afterwards, Reb
Michel heard from Rav Naftali Beinush Wasserman that his
uncle Reb Chaim Ozer had highly praised his Torah.
Reb Michel once remarked that it was generally thought that
Reb Chaim Ozer was a worldly person but this was untrue. "He,
ztvk'l, was a frummer," Reb Michel maintained,
"and the proof is that at night he slept on a large wooden
box. I thought, `Didn't our master Rav Chaim Ozer possess a
bed?' but the reason he did it was because the box contained
all the tzedokoh funds that had been entrusted to him.
He wanted to guard the box physically because he was of the
opinion that the only way to look after the money was by
having it on his own person. He also engaged in other kinds
of self-deprivation and followed other stringencies, on a
very high spiritual level."
Reb Michel also got to know the Chazon Ish zt'l while
they were both still in Europe (several years earlier). Once
while sitting in Yerushalayim with his father-in-law the
Brisker Rov, Reb Michel observed that in the Chazon Ish, one
could see the fulfillment of Hashem's promise that Torah will
never be entirely forgotten by the Jewish people (Devorim
21:31). "I remember that in Vilna he was an
avreich who learned all the time and nobody knew who
he was. I saw him in Drusenik on vacation, also learning all
the time. And it was he who ascended to the Holy Land before
the war to lead chareidi Jewry in Eretz Yisroel."
Reb Michel would always quote the Chazon Ish as having said
that so long as Reb Shimon and Reb Boruch Ber remained alive,
it was not possible for the Germans to overrun Lithuania.
This, he said, demonstrates the power of toil in Torah study
and its ability to shield an entire generation from harm.
Once, Reb Michel read some of the Chazon Ish's Torah and went
to submit a correction on something he'd written according to
the Rambam. At a later date, the Chazon Ish encountered Reb
Michel again at a bris and told him that he'd put the
point right. When Rebbetzin Feinstein visited the Chazon Ish,
he stood up for her and commented that one ought to stand up
for her twice, because she was both the daughter of a scholar
and the wife of a scholar. When she asked him about a point
of halochoh, he told her to ask her father for "every word of
his is halochoh."
In Vilna at the beginning of the War, Reb Michel organized a
kibbutz that met to hear the Rov's shiur. Among the
members were Rav Elya Chazan, Rav Dovid Povarsky, Rav Noach
Shimanowitz, Rav Hillel Kagan, Rav Chaim Milikowsky and
others. Reb Michel was already a trusted member of the Rov's
immediate circle. In Vilna, the Rov asked Reb Michel to
arrange for the baking of matzos and gave him detailed
instructions about what to do.
From Vilna, Reb Michel sent a letter to Rav Avrohom
Kalmanovitz, zt'l, who raised and sent the colossal
sum of a quarter of a million dollars so that the bnei
hayeshiva could leave the country.
They travelled across Russia and sailed to Japan, arriving in
Kobe on the sixth of Adar. In the course of his intensive
work on behalf of the refugees, Reb Michel met the consul in
Japan (who eventually converted) and did a great deal of
rescue work on behalf of the bnei hayeshivos,
organizing the dispatch of matzos and wine for Pesach 5701
through Rav Kalmanovitz.
America
Reb Michel did not continue to Shanghai with the rest of the
yeshiva. With his uncle's help he managed to immigrate to the
United States.
As soon as he arrived, he opened a yeshiva in Boston for
refugees from Mir Yeshiva, where he remained for six months.
Then he was called upon by his uncle Reb Moshe to assist him
in his position as rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Tiferes
Yerushalayim.
Reb Michel continued working untiringly on behalf of the
refugees and was a member of Vaad Hatzolah. He also travelled
to England and to France, where he opened a refugee camp. He
was asked by the gedolei Yisroel to serve as a member
of the Agudas HaRabbonim. Rabbi Menachem Porush remembers
that when Reb Michel arrived late to meetings of the Moetzes
Gedolei Hatorah of America, Reb Aharon, Reb Moshe and Reb
Reuven (Grozovsky) zt'l, would stand up in his honor
even though he was still a bochur.
Eretz Yisroel
In 5706 (1946) he settled in Eretz Yisroel and soon went to
see the Brisker Rov. They spoke in learning. After their
discussion, the Rov was soaked in sweat and he was very
impressed with the Torah that he had heard from Reb Michel.
He exclaimed, "I told you that there's nobody to speak with
in learning in the Holy Land!" Rav Meir Soloveitchik recalls
that when Reb Michel would come to his father's shiur,
the Rov would say, "Today's shiur will be a yom tov
[because of the fiery discussion]!"
Reb Michel married the Brisker Rov's daughter on the
seventeenth of Av 5706. His rebbe Reb Isser Zalman
Meltzer conducted the proceedings and at the meal, Reb Michel
delivered a profound discourse on the topic of "toch
tocho" (Zevochim 3). Rav Berel Povarsky recalls the glow
of joy on the Brisker Rov's face while Reb Michel was
speaking.
In the middle of 5708, Reb Michel returned to America to
continue serving in Tiferes Yerushalayim. In 5712 he returned
to Eretz Yisroel and the following year, he opened Yeshivas
Beis Yehuda in Tel Aviv, beginning almost half a century of
Torah dissemination in Eretz Yisroel.
One of the papers wrote the following about Beis Yehuda in
the yeshiva's early days: "Since he opened the kollel,
Reb Michel has abandoned his communal involvement. From nine
until eleven a.m. the avreichim make thorough
preparations for their great teacher's shiur. After
two p.m. they daven minchah and then review the
shiur until late at night. Few of the residents of Tel
Aviv are aware that this Jew is a Torah giant, to whom young
scholars flock from all over the world, to learn Torah from
his lips . . ."
With the Brisker Rov
One of Reb Michel's talmidim tells the following two
stories: "It happened while I was a bochur. One warm
evening, I knocked on the door of Reb Michel's room in Tel
Aviv, with a passage of Baal Hamo'or which I was
having difficulty in understanding. Reb Michel was sitting
and learning, with his two daughters on his lap. A bowl of
water stood on the table and from time to time, he would wash
the girls' faces to lower their temperature. I asked him
about the Baal Hamo'or and when we'd finished another
avreich entered and offhandedly asked him, "Does one
receive reward for raising children?"
Reb Michel replied that he'd heard from Reb Yeruchom that the
particular wickedness of Nevuchadnezzar had been his wish to
cut off future generations. The reward for raising children
might therefore actually be those future generations.
About a fortnight later he told us, "That's incorrect. I went
to my teacher and father-in-law and put your question to him
and he told me, `S'iz nisht richtig (It's not right)
because "the world will be built through kindness"
(Tehillim 89:3) and for that kindness there is no
reward.' "
In the kollel it was customary that any difficulties
in learning would be put to the Brisker Rov. On one of these
visits to Yerushalayim, everyone saw Reb Michel's respect for
the Rov and his trepidation at repeating the Rambam's
words.
Rav Shmuel Rozovsky related that he was once speaking in
learning with the Brisker Rov and the Rov told him his
opinion. He then asked Reb Michel, who was present, to help
by reviewing what he had said again for Reb Shmuel: "You have
a rosh yeshiva's way of putting things. Explain to Reb Shmuel
what I said."
The Shabbos sheva brochos celebrating Rav Meir
Soloveitchik's marriage was held in Bnei Brak. Reb Michel had
forgotten his own glasses in Tel Aviv and between kabolas
Shabbos and ma'ariv he asked his father-in-law to
lend him his glasses. The Rov told him that in Brisk they had
paraffin lamps and it had been his custom to review a number
of pages of gemora very quickly and he hadn't been
concerned about tipping the lamp inadvertently. "In Eretz
Yisroel I boruch Hashem have frummer kinder,
who don't allow me to learn by lamplight. Take my glasses and
learn."
The Rov once told Reb Michel that he knew two baalei
mussar, one from Lithuania and the other from Poland: the
tzaddikim Rav Eliyahu Lopian and Rav Yechezkel
Levenstein zt'l. When Reb Michel's talmidim
[heard this they] asked him, "What about Reb Yeruchom?"
and he told them, "Reb Yeruchom belonged to an earlier
generation. The Brisker Rov made Reb Yeruchom's acquaintance
when the latter came to Brisk to visit his son-in-law Rav
Yisroel Chaim Kaplan, zt'l, who served as a rosh
yeshiva there. On that occasion, he surveyed all his
talmidim who were in Brisk and, after praising them
all, on his return home he noted his particular satisfaction
with Michel Starobiner.
Reb Michel related that it sometimes happened that the
Brisker Rov dozed while giving shiur and when he awoke
he continued from the very word where he'd left off. Even
while he slept, he was immersed in learning.
The Rov once told Reb Michel that his father (Reb Chaim) had
been a "wise man who saw what was going to happen" while he
himself, although not on that level, could see what was
actually happening. Others, he observed, don't even see what
is happening in the present.
In 5697, when shechitah was banned, the Brisker Rov
mentioned his father's having quoted the Rambam's response to
someone who had written to him with certain questions, that
his questions arose from the spiritual coarseness that
resulted from eating meat from animals that had been
improperly slaughtered. The Rambam recommended examining the
slaughterer.
In Eretz Yisroel, when they founded the Shomrei
Shabbos burial ground, they wrote that it was for those
who "observed Shabbos and who ate kosher food." This was
shown to the Brisker Rov and he said that it was because
those who eat non- kosher food defile their souls. Reb Michel
found an allusion to this in the posuk, "Those who
sanctify and purify themselves [preparing] to go to [worship
the avodoh zara that was placed in] the gardens . . .
who eat the flesh of the swine, the abomination and the mouse
. . ." (Yeshayohu 66:17).
Rav Michel's prayers were known for their emotion and
intensity. As the moment for beginning the Amidah
prayer approached, he would button his coat and move away
anything that was in his immediate vicinity. It was obvious
that he was clearing both his surroundings and his mind in
preparation for standing before his Creator in exceptionally
close prayer.
He began the Amidah gently, pronouncing each word with
deliberation. He was like a child standing talking to his
father in an otherwise empty room. Watching him, one saw that
although there were other people there -- other
mispallelim or family members -- it was as though none
of them existed. Even a child could appreciate that the Rosh
Kollel, Reb Michel, was immersed in conversation with his
Maker.
He said one brochoh after another. When necessary, he
added particular requests. He prayed for the coming hours of
night or day, for his talmidim and the members of his
family, for assistance with spiritual challenges and for the
resources of character to cope with material ones, for
individuals and for his people as a whole. All this would be
followed by a burst of weeping, as he shed pure tears of
closeness to Hashem.
When saying the brochoh of Refo'einu, he would
take out numerous scraps of paper and mention the names that
were written on them. Every Shabbos he would make a mi
sheberach for the sick and mention them all. He
remembered most of their names by heart.
Towards the end of his life, his recital of Elokai
netzor after the Amidah resembled the sharing of a
confidential secret. Whatever he said then was inaudible. He
whispered private longings and yearnings, as fresh tears
coursed down his cheeks, until he took three backward
steps.
So much for the Amidah itself. In shacharis and
ma'ariv there was a long road to traverse before
getting there. His talmidim say that they didn't wait
for him to end Krias Shema but to begin it! He would
sit in intense concentration for several minutes before
beginning and people saw him counting something on his
fingers. Nobody knew what he was doing and the secret was
only discovered after his petiroh when one of his
talmidim related that he'd once had the nerve to ask
Reb Michel "what sign he was making with his hand."
"I'm thinking about the Aseres Hadibros," Reb Michel
told him. He would go through the commandments one by one,
accepting each of them.
He often said that when one Jew prays sincerely and
wholeheartedly on behalf of another, without any personal
motives, his prayer is close to Hashem even if he is not a
great tzaddik.
One of Reb Michel's talmidim once came to give him the
good news that his daughter had become engaged. "It is the
Rosh Yeshiva's miracle!" he exclaimed. Just a month before,
the father had asked Reb Michel to pray for them and had
received a blessing that he find his daughter's match
quickly.
Reb Michel played his "achievement" down. "I'm neither a
tzaddik nor a miracle worker" he insisted, "but when
you came to see me, I took the matter to heart and was very
distressed. I thought to myself, `What a terrible thing for a
someone to have a grown daughter still at home,' and I put
all my soul into the Tehillim that I said. Because I
blessed you wholeheartedly, your daughter found her match.
You should know that Hashem fulfills the request of any Jew
who gives a blessing wholeheartedly!"
On Shabbos Reb Michel would receive maftir and would
read the haftorah together with the baal koreh.
When reading pesukim that spoke about Klal
Yisroel's past and future, Reb Michel's shoulders would
tremble. Later, he would always speak about what he had felt
during the reading.
He was careful to thank the Cohanim warmly with a
hearty yasher koach after they had blessed the
tzibbur. He often mentioned the care that the Brisker
Rov had taken over Bircas Cohanim, following the
opinion of the Chareidim, that it is a mitzva both for the
Cohen to bless and for the Yisroel to be
blessed. He would also observe that people go to receive
blessings from tzaddikim, for which they pay money
while here one gets a blessing from Hakodosh Boruch Hu
for free!
Rav Yitzchok Zilberstein recalled the time he was presented
with a query concerning a terminally ill patient in a serious
condition, who very much wanted to see the chuppah of
her engaged daughter. It was chol hamoed Succos and he
deliberated over how a chuppah might be arranged
(since halochoh prohibits marrying on chol hamoed).
Rav Zilberstein consulted Reb Michel who told him, "Why look
for leniencies? Let's pray that the mother has a long
life!"
Reb Michel prayed and the mother lived to see her daughter's
wedding, which was held during Chanukah. She passed away the
day after the sheva brochos ended.
In recent years, with the waves of terrorist attacks, he
would weep while beseeching Hashem to end our exile and bring
the final redemption. Once after tefilloh he recalled
that at the time of the pogroms that ravaged Russian Jewry,
his grandfather Reb Dovid Feinstein zt'l, would cry
over the common suffering. Today, Reb Michel remarked,
because of all our troubles and because of the materialism of
the world at large, we've become hardhearted to a degree. We
don't shed a tear over the fresh tragedies that each day
brings. We have lost the feeling of brotherhood that binds
Klal Yisroel together.
As told by Reb Michel to his talmidim -- arranged by
A. Chefetz
I Hate Them Completely
In Vilna, the Communists erected a beautiful gateway in honor
of the first of May. Reb Michel commented on its beauty to
the Brisker Rov. The Rov wondered how it was possible to find
anything beautiful about people concerning whom the
posuk says, "[For I shall hate those who hate You,
Hashem . . .] I hate them completely; they are my enemies"
(Tehillim 139:21-2).
On another occasion, Reb Michel mentioned that it is known
that as a young child, the Communist leader Trotsky was
thrown out of the cheder where he learned. He
commented that if he wouldn't have been sent away, he might
not have grown up to become what he did.
He also noted that one day, the Chofetz Chaim asked what the
name of Trotsky's mother was and immediately afterwards,
Stalin had Trotsky killed. They told the Chofetz Chaim that
he should pray that Stalin should also be killed. His
response was that, "We have no control over goyim".
Nothing Gained
HaRav Yitzchok Elchonon Spektor, zt'l, did not speak
Russian but whenever he had to intercede with the Russian
Governor he always achieved his ends. His efforts on behalf
of Klal Yisroel were blessed with a very high degree
of success. His son, on the other hand, could speak Russian
yet his communal endeavors did not succeed as his father's
had done. The Governor also told him, "Your father didn't
know Russian yet I understood him better than I understand
you."
Reb Michel explained that drawing close to gentiles does not
foster closeness and is purely destructive. He pointed to the
Targum Yonoson of the posuk, "And you shall be
a source of wonderment . . ." (Devorim 28:37), which
clearly says that merely wanting to follow avodoh zara
earns the gentiles' scorn.
Reb Dovid Karliner, Zt'l
Reb Michel related that Rav Dovid Friedman of Karlin, one of
the greatest geonim in Lithuania in Reb Chaim's time,
once napped for a while. After this he undertook to prevent a
recurrence by eating very little -- a small amount in the
morning, just enough to sustain him, and another small amount
in the evening. Reb Michel would use this story to show that
a person should only eat as much as he needs and no more.
He also repeated Reb Chaim's comment about Reb Dovid, which
Reb Chaim conveyed through a parable. Tailors use needle and
thread to sew cloth into a garment. A master tailor makes his
own needles, sharpening the point and making the hole. Only
then does he begin to sew. Reb Chaim said that in learning,
Reb Dovid wasn't satisfied to work with what had already been
prepared by others. He made his own needle. In understanding
each sugya, he built everything anew, from the
beginning.
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