"Chazal say that a talmid doesn't understand his
rebbi for forty years, yet it's over forty years since
the Rosh Yeshiva's petiroh and we're still trying to
understand him."
These words uttered this year by Rav Zev Tikotzky, a
talmid of the Rosh Yeshiva at the annual
yahrzeit gathering for the Rosh Yeshiva HaRav Aaron
Kotler zt"l, encapsulate the reverence and awe in
which his talmidim and the entire Torah world held
him. While the Rosh Yeshiva's legacy has undoubtedly grown
over the years with the proliferation of the olom
haTorah in the United States and in Eretz Yisroel
that he fought so hard to establish, and his accomplishments
for the klal are, to a degree, known, the generations
that have been born since his petiroh in 1962 know
little about Rav Aaron the person, Rav Aaron the rosh
yeshiva, and Rav Aaron the undisputed manhig hador.
A newly released book, distributed by Feldheim, fills this
void. In a book interspersed with translations of a wide
array of shmuessen from the highly acclaimed
Mishnas Rav Aaron on mussar and
machshovoh, enhanced with hundreds of fascinating
stories from the life of Rav Aaron which illustrate how his
teachings were put into practice, studded with beautiful
pictures, the Rosh Yeshiva and his teachings come to life.
One can read fascinating stories about Rav Aaron's
hasmodoh and yegiah, his amazing warmth and
ahavas Yisroel, his chesed, his anovoh,
his midas ho'emes, his bitochon — and
then encounter an inspiring shmuess and be amazed to
see how the Rosh Yeshiva derived it all through his broad and
deep knowledge of Torah. Mishnas Rav Aaron and the
Life of Rav Aaron thus complement and elucidate each
other in this book. Hence, its appropriate title: A Living
Mishnas Rav Aaron.
Readers will undoubtedly find this book interesting and
inspiring. As the Lakewood Rosh Yeshiva HaRav Malkiel Kotler,
writes in his haskomoh, "It will be a tremendous
chizuk for bnei Torah who will [be inspired to]
shteig in limud haTorah and for everyone who
`will absorb the fragrance' of my grandfather's Torah and
yiras Shomayim."
Additionally, there are interesting and inspiring vignettes
such as an encounter as a youth with the rector of the Kovno
public school (gymnasia) while on vacation in Ramashok,
descriptions of the love of Torah of the townsmen of Kletsk,
footnotes with stories about other wonderful Jews who were
associated with the Rosh Yeshiva, and a number of fascinating
chapters about the Rosh Yeshiva's devoted Rebbetzin, about
his son and successor, the Rosh Yeshiva HaRav Shneur
zt"l, and about the venerable masgiach, HaRav
Nosson Wachtfogel zt"l.
The book was written by Rav Yitzchok Dershowitz, a
talmid of the Rosh Yeshiva who is an accomplished
talmid chochom and a kollel member of the Bais
Medrash Govohah, who undertook to perpetuate Rav Aaron's
legacy to the generations of Torah Jews who gained so much
from him but who weren't privileged to know him personally.
Through A Living Mishnas Rav Aaron they, too, can
become talmidim of the Rosh Yeshiva.
The clearest statement of the book's conception is that
made by the author in his Preface:
A Living Mishnas Rav Aharon is not a biography in the
conventional sense and in fact contains relatively little
historical information. Nor does it focus in detail on the
Rosh Yeshiva's klal activities. Rather it is a
sefer in that it attempts to study and present in a
lively form the teachings of the great, saintly Rosh Yeshiva
and pre- eminent Torah leader of his generation Maran Rav
Aharon Kotler, ztz"l (hereafter referred to as "The
Rosh Yeshiva") as found in his Mussar writings
("Mishnas Rav Aharon"), many of which appear here in
English for the first time, as transmitted by students and as
demonstrated by his personal life. It is replete with
memories and impressions of talmidim and
contemporaries, and contains a wealth of stories and
anecdotes, which combine to demonstrate how he lived as he
taught. In this sense, it serves as a biography too — a
biography of a "living Mishnas Rav Aharon."
Included in this work are chapters with some material on
three partners, if you will, in the Rosh Yeshiva's life's
work: his esteemed wife, Rebbetzin Rivka Chana Perel, his son
and successor Maran Rav Shneur, and the revered long-time
Mashgiach of Lakewood — Maran Rav Noson Wachtfogel,
zecher tzaddikim livrochoh.
HaKodosh Boruch Hu has given me the great zchus
to have studied under the Rosh Yeshiva in the last two and a
quarter years of his life, and afterwards, in Bais Medrash
Govoha until this day. As such, I have personally observed
and, at times, even participated in some of the stories
recorded here, or heard them from other talmidim
throughout the years. . . .
It is also interesting, constructive and particularly
appropriate at this time to include one piece from the work
itself.
On Conducting One's Bein Hazmanim
" . . . It's necessary to arrange one's Bein Hazmanim
(intercession) so that he doesn't have a loss, chas
vesholom (the loss that otherwise occurs when one
interrupts his learning without a real "heter"). His
intentions should be to strengthen himself for the next
zman, which is the only heter for interruption.
He should, of course, make sure that he doesn't start his
Bein Hazmanim earlier than he is supposed to, nor
should his learning slacken off towards the end of the
zman. The interruption itself should not be total,
rather he should make set times for learning and, most
importantly, he should not take his mind off learning. He
should delve into seforim, "talk in learning" with
friends, his conversations should be in Torah and he should
see to it that he is in the company of bnei Torah."
(p. 75)
