SPECIAL EPISODE! Interview with Rav Yisroel Levovitz Discussing the Life and Legacy of His Great-Grandfather Rav Yeruchom Levovitz on his Yahrtzeit (Rebroadcast)

Transcript

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It is my understanding that tonight and tomorrow is the 87th Yort site of your Heilig.

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Zayda.

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Great-grandfather, great-grandfather Moran Rav Yerucham L'Vovitz, zohran L'Vracha.

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Correct.

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Site.

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Kaisivan 1936, havreish Tarek Vov Aha.

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And therefore I thought that it would be exciting to have you on the podcast to ask you some questions to further understand this great Godel.

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He's someone that I am enamored by.

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I will try my best to answer, but don't think for a second that I understand him, because I don't.

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But I can tell you what I know just from growing up with him.

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The backdrop of my life.

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You know, nobody understands him.

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Him, he was too great for us to understand, you know I hear.

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So let's get right into it.

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Would you perhaps like to give the audience a just a introduction as to who you are and your relationship to this great individual?

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okay, so, like I said, my father, his name is Rabbi Rucham Lubavitz.

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He was the first in the family named after his grandfather, my father's father.

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My grandfather was Rabbi Moshe Leib Lubavitz is Rabbi Rucham's son, and then Rabbi Rucham was my great-grandfather.

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And you said your father's name is Rabbi Rucham as well right.

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Correct my father was born in 1941.

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Yerucham was left there in 1936.

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Yes, uh-huh, uh-huh, it is.

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I must just to kick off the conversation.

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Is it someone that you?

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I have sort of a feeling that it's kind of found new love and new respect about this figure.

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It's kind of found new love and new respect about this figure.

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I mean, there has only been a biography that's come out about him now, almost 87 years after he's passed away, and it makes no sense to me and it feels like some sort of wave is coming with his Musser and his approach.

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Do you feel the same way with that?

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I am quite interested to hear.

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Well, no, again his biography.

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If you take a look at the biography that came out recently in English, before that in Hebrew, it's not much of a biography per se.

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It's more about his derech and his musr and the things that he put into people.

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It's more about his derech than about him as a person.

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Him as a person was not.

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There were many things about him that a person, him as a person was not.

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It was not.

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You know, there were many things about him that are obscure, that we don't know about his.

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You know his early life, or there were pockets within his later life that we don't really know much, when he was running.

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What does that mean?

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What does that mean?

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That means that we don't know much about his parents.

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We don't really know much about him.

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When he got married, we know that he went to Raden and he spent eight years in the Chagat Z'Chayim's Kachem Koyol.

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Once he was married, then he sort of came on the scene being the Mashkiach in Raden At some point.

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He was the Mashkiach in Panovich At some point.

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They say he might have been something.

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He was Mash.

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It was.

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Mashiach, in Panovich, in the town of Panovich, not in Sheba Panovich.

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Again, there were times during World War I, especially when he was running, running, when there were packets of years where we really don't know what was going on with him.

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No, you could pick up bits and pieces from different books, different sightings for lack of a better word of him.

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But until the golden years of the Mir.

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That's when he first really took over the scene and from there is what we know of him, as early as we know that when he first got married he learned in the Kachem Kael.

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He learned with Khabrusa, with the Naftali Trap.

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They finished together.

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He learned with Khabrusa and Kalim.

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We do know these, these things about him, but until?

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But the rabbi rucham that you know is the rucham of the mirror aha, that is very interesting, right.

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It feels like the way that the authors put it, the historians is that the mirror of his golden age was during the 20s and kind of took all that he had from the Chavetz Chaim and all that he had from Slabotga and all that he had from Kelm and then brought it to a time that was just perfectly ripe to be able to share it with the world he was definitely a product of.

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You know the Altav and Kelm as well, the Altav and Slab who was Rebbein, but more you know the Altaf al-Kalim was really his Rebbe.

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You know, everything he said was and he said about himself was a pirish on what he heard from the Altaf al-Kalim.

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All his shmoozan, all his va'ad, it was all like being mefarish.

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Everything he learned from the Alta of the Kelim and, mind you, he only learned from the Alta of the Kelim for a year or less.

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After that he stayed in Kelim by the Alta of Nahum Zev, the Alta of the Son and the Alta of the Son-in-law.

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But the Alta was just a year of his life but it was such a profound impact it had on him that the rest of his life he was, you know, living with that and teaching that.

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He was in Raden before or after Kelm.

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So I believe he was in Raden afterwards Kelm was his formative years.

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Then he went to Raden after he got married.

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He stayed there in Keul for eight years and then he sort of became a Dimashkiach there.

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Then there was you know again.

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It's not so clear what happened between him and the Chavetz Chaim, but it wasn't the right place for him.

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He was maybe too dynamic for that crowd or whatever.

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Right, because that was going to ask you for some clarification on that, because the way that it's written over in the books, especially, I think, the way his son writes it in Das Torah, is that he felt already that it was one or two Bacha that were coming over to him and instead of going over to the Chavetz Chaim and he felt like it was just taking away and he was so unfitting in the presence.

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There's a lot of truth to that.

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Yeah, I mean, he was definitely felt that that wasn't the place where he could, or maybe should, be the go-to person.

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The Chavetz Chaim was there and the derech of the Chavetz Chaim and his derech were not always the same derech.

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It wasn't anything contentious or anything, because he felt that that's just not where I belonged.

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Interesting.

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So the other side of the story is that perhaps it wasn't the same hal between Rabbi Rucham and the Chavetz Chaim.

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Something like that.

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Yeah, Again, I can't tell you with clarity.

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I've heard various different versions of the story from different people, from different tzvarim.

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It just wasn't where he belonged.

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He just felt that he can be more productive elsewhere and less of an issue with the derach of what was going on in Raden.

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Aha, aha.

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That's my understanding, i's my mistake, I got it.

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I got it, and from from raden, he then went immediately to his next stellar, his next position it's not immediately, because you know he he did.

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You know, at one point they wanted him to come to calum and then world war one got in the way.

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It wasn't a smooth sailing type of thing at all.

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You know there was an issue going on in the Mir at the time which is why they brought him in.

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Actually it wasn't like he just like a Womashki, had passed away and needed another one, the Mir that we know of.

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You know the Altimir.

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You know you're a Blade Mahler and there's a whole program about that Mir.

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You know, before he came in it was a very old yeshiva.

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I think it was the second oldest yeshiva after Golazhin.

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But at that time there was a lot of let's say, I don't know if you want to call it mismanagement, or you know it wasn't, things weren't going smoothly and Nebuleh Zidl I think it was a yeshiva at the time saw that he needed to bring someone in.

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So you know, I believe that Alta Ben Slobatov was the one who told Ibrahim Lezidl to bring Ibrahim in.

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And it was really a tremendous thing on Ibrahim Lezidl's part, because I think he knew, going in, that he was pretty much giving the yeshiva away to Ibrahim.

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Ibrahim's personality was such that when he came over to the yeshiva I mean Ibrahim Lezidl was the Rosh Yeshiva but Ibrahim became the you know, the guy you know.

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He was so captivating the way they put it.

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They all became and Ablazidl knew that and he didn't care, because that was his personality in general, ablazidl, ablazidl, anything for the furtherment of Torah, you know, whether it's his own yeshiva or a different yeshiva.

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He wasn's a selfless kind of person.

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He knew going in that he's giving the yeshiva to rebbe rohan, but that's what he wanted, that's what he did.

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That's why it produced what it did amazing.

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So I must ask you about he.

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He's obviously famous for his talks, his lectures, these, the way, his one-on-one meetings with people I always think about.

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Though, how did he spend his day Meaning as a mashkiach?

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Does it mean that he would wake up with the bachram and he'd have a chachas at the yeshiva?

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Let's jump to 1920s, when they're roaring the golden age of mir, and he's there.

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There's 200 bachram in the mir, and is he there at the mir?

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He's dabbling with them.

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He's sitting in first state with them.

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He's answering their Gammara questions.

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Or does he have his own office and they come to him for advice?

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So again, first of all, for a large part of the time that he was in the mirror, his family wasn't there.

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They were in a different city in those events and he was in the mirror and he only went home once a year or maybe twice a year.

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But interestingly, just as an aside, parenthetically all his children have the same birthday, which is an interesting thing about it.

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He went home once a year, and all his children.

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It's just interesting.

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But yeah, he pretty much lived in the yeshiva even after they moved to the mirror.

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He didn't sit, I don't think, in the Besmedushah all day.

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He had what's called a shalka.

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It was a room upstairs which had a window down to the Besmedushah.

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He spent a lot of time up there, whether it was learning, whether it was meeting with Bachram, but I don't know if he sat in Besmedushah all day or sat upstairs.

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I was in that room actually many years ago when I went to visit it.

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I actually is this in the modern mir building in the mirror.

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I wouldn't call modern, but today a post office in a town of mir in belarus.

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The yeshiva building still stands.

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It's a post office and upstairs is what is like a I don't know, I guess an attic or a room.

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Wait, that was his room and I used to spend most of his time.

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There were people.

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I know a lot of stories that I've heard over the years.

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Bochum would go and speak to him.

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They would go upstairs to speak to him.

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So I'm sure he made it to the Besmetish as well.

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But he did spend a lot of time up there, whether it was observing the Bahram, learning, you know, preparing Shmuzim, whatever.

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He wasn't the Rosh Yeshiva.

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He wasn't answering the Marah questions per se.

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I mean not that he didn't know the Marah, he's, of course he did, you see from the Bucky in the large Chalak of Kala Terekula, but that wasn't his role with the Bachra.

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It's in trying to acquire a Mahalik, like the way he would think, what he was famous for.

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It's clear that the derech it feels like to me, the derech of Rabbi Ruchem, is that he would immediately take everything for face value.

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If Chazal say it, then that's what Chazal meant.

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They're not changing anything, and every time he would try to prove or develop a topic it's remarkable how he's citing Mara Mechomos throughout Shas.

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Listen, you know, the Briscoe Rav famously said that what Reb Chaim Briscoe was to the Rambam, Reb Recham was to Mamari Chazal.

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In other words, he didn't just greet.

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Chazal and say a schmooze Chazal, like you said, was real to him.

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He took it apart, like the way Reb Chaim would take a plot of Rambam and say we've got to dissect it and figure out what the Rambam's saying.

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That's what he did to Mamari Chazal.

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I mean he knew Chumash and Rashi cold.

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I know my interesting tidbit my grandfather, my shaleh, when he was at Kufa, when I think between during the World War I, whenever it was, and they were running that, my grandfather and my great-grandfather he would learn Chumash and Rashi with him every single day for like a couple years straight and he Rashi with him every single day for like a couple years straight and he would tell him that a year has to know how much Rashi cold, because all the soldiers of Amuna are in Hamas Rashi.

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Everything now everything else is is, you know, you know it's all good murder, but Hamas Rashi is every side of Amuna that I yet has to know and anything and everything the lies in Hamas Rashi it's unbelievable.

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That's what he did.

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I mean he dissected that.

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So come hereumash and Rashi.

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It's unbelievable.

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That's what he did.

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He dissected that Sukkum, he dissected the Rashi, he dissected the Medrash, he dissected the Rambans.

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That's what he did.

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Like you said, if Chazal said it, it was true.

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Now we're going to figure out how it's true, what they meant and what we can learn from it.

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Right, right, and part of the cool.

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The cool, you know, reason why I am so blown away by him is because it feels like I'd love to get your thoughts about this.

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It feels like he is the, he comes from that world that we almost wish we could tap into, of Kelm and Slobodka and Europe and all of it.

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But he's kind of the link where actually in the book All for the Boss, from Recham Hashem talking about her father, there's that famous chapter there of where it's she and her husband are speaking about their times in living in Mir and how they see Rabbi Recham L'Vovitz, rabbi Recham L'Vovitz, and how it feels like it's this big collision between American Bachrim, you know, the United States of America into Mir and it's this big connection between Europe, slavodka, kelm, and then am I right in assuming that he is someone who brought yeah, so you're actually tapping into something interesting, which is the Mir had two types of Bahrim.

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There was what's called the Icelander, which means people who came from outside of the.

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You know the inner Europe.

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That would include Americans, that would include even Germans.

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You know people who came from Canada and things like that.

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That's who Das Teure is Now the difference between Das Koffer Musser with the three-volume blue set.

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Oh, so let's give an introduction, just give an introduction for the audience that doesn't know.

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So now the and correct me if I'm wrong, but there's, his rabbi rucham's works are published in kind of nine books, I guess.

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Maybe actually let me let you hand it over to you to describe, yeah, in other words, rucham himself worked to publish this form of the altopunkele.

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That was his life's work, his, his own work.

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He didn't publish his son.

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My great uncle was the one who worked his entire life to publish ibrahim's works.

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Okay now, the difference between das kakhamusir is a three-volume set of uh, you know, of shmuzin.

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Those are basically the shmuzin that he gave at the yeshiva.

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He gave a shmuz four times a week and that the das kakhamusir shmuzin that were.

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Those are much more higher level stuff.

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Taz Torah was based on a Chumash Vahd that he gave specifically to the Icelanders, means to the people who came from America, the people who came from Germany and such, the ones that he felt did not have the bedrock, the foundation, the proper foundation that the other Baphomet had.

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They were on a lower level, for lack of a better term, and he felt that he had to boost their Amunah.

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He had to boost their connection to Chazal, to the Taira, to the you know to be B'nai Taira, to be able to be on the level of a European B'nai Taira like Reb Leib Malin or Reb Leib Malin or Reb Yannick Karpalov or the Lions of the Mirror.

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The Americans had to be able to contend with that, so he gave them a lot of attention and that was that special Fumishbat and that's what's known today as Das Terra.

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It's all based on that.

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It's different.

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The Shmuzim were geared to one crowd and much more, maybe higher level or deeper level or much more Kalam-y or more Slav-Bak-y.

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And the Das Teru was much.

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We brought it down a level in a way, but not brought it down to content.

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That's why it's so much easier for us to relate to Das Teru stuff not that it's easy, but easier than the Das Chacham Moshe stuff.

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Das Chacham Moshe stuff is very much calm.

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Who was Das Chacham Moshe taught to.

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That was the Shmuzin.

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That was the Shmuzin that he gave the whole yeshiva, yeah, the whole yeshiva.

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Four times a week he gave a Shmuzin to the whole yeshiva and that originally was printed you know little pamphlets.

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Eventually it got compiled into what we know as Das Dastal Mumsur.

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You know various Talmidim wrote over Shmuz and then eventually it got.

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It wasn't your great-uncle, it wasn't your great-uncle who did Das Dastal Mumsur.

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Yes, he was the one who pulled it all together, but he didn't necessarily write all of it.

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You know what I mean.

00:16:39.639 --> 00:16:43.668
It was other Talmidim and stuff, das T and stuff, das Teirah was very much him.

00:16:43.668 --> 00:16:45.371
You know that was his life's work.

00:16:45.371 --> 00:16:50.519
I remember growing up, you know, when I was a kid only Bereshit existed and a year or two later Shemoyis was published.

00:16:50.519 --> 00:16:55.283
And as I grew up, you know, until eventually, I remember when Tevarim came out it was like a tremendous simcha.

00:16:55.283 --> 00:16:57.181
Two volumes of Tevarim, yeah.

00:16:57.181 --> 00:17:06.548
And then that was like wow, that was a life's work, that my great uncle publishing his father's stuff for the world.

00:17:06.548 --> 00:17:08.299
That is not a best-selling edition of Clydesdore, that doesn't have Dostoevsky.

00:17:09.582 --> 00:17:10.465
There's so many.

00:17:10.465 --> 00:17:24.795
I just imagine this chosem that he has, because there's so many ideas that it feels like these certain foundations of Jewish philosophy, theology and faith are only brought to America.

00:17:24.795 --> 00:17:29.130
It really feels like through his work through Das Taira.

00:17:29.539 --> 00:17:37.205
Well, that's correct in a way, because again, you have to remember that the Mir Yashiva was pretty much the only European Yashiva that survived as a whole.

00:17:37.205 --> 00:17:44.923
So there were many great Yashivas in Europe and many, you know, balei, muster, and stuff like that that didn't necessarily make it out as a whole.

00:17:44.923 --> 00:17:48.648
So his, his talmidim, survived, you know.

00:17:48.648 --> 00:17:56.693
So there was a, there's a, there's someone there to to, you know, to write it to, to push it out, to populate it to, to propagate it.

00:17:56.693 --> 00:17:58.441
You know what I mean there was.

00:17:58.441 --> 00:18:03.259
That's probably the reason why I'm not saying, you know, there were plenty of other people.

00:18:03.259 --> 00:18:06.625
You know, there was a lepyan, it was a desolate.

00:18:06.625 --> 00:18:11.173
Each one had their own, you know, derek, and they were definitely, you know, great people.

00:18:11.173 --> 00:18:22.965
But he had a certain dynamic which, coupled with the fact that his talmidim survived and and and and, uh, I looked up to him the way they did.

00:18:22.965 --> 00:18:24.871
He was it to them.

00:18:24.871 --> 00:18:34.571
You know, and that's why you know I think that's my personal opinion why it managed to have a resurgence, you know.

00:18:35.881 --> 00:18:37.928
Why do you think that he is so?

00:18:37.928 --> 00:18:39.766
People were so obsessed with him.

00:18:39.766 --> 00:18:48.352
Right, there are people that I know make suit, those, including myself, in times that they were introduced to Rabbi Rucham.

00:18:48.352 --> 00:18:51.027
Why is he so compelling, would you say?

00:18:51.027 --> 00:18:52.103
What makes him so?

00:18:52.103 --> 00:18:56.280
I'm obsessed with the speeches, First of all.

00:18:56.280 --> 00:19:03.914
Also, I want to make the point that the way that this farmer also written Das Teirah, he's clearly a fantastic author.

00:19:03.914 --> 00:19:04.901
He's clearly a fantastic author.

00:19:05.201 --> 00:19:12.211
Well, a lot of that is credit to my great uncle, who was a fantastic writer.

00:19:12.672 --> 00:19:13.432
That's what I meant to say.

00:19:13.432 --> 00:19:14.355
I meant to compliment.

00:19:14.815 --> 00:19:15.016
Right.

00:19:15.016 --> 00:19:22.585
So yes, rabbi Ruchem was a fantastic person and a fantastic he knew how to give a schmooze and he connected.

00:19:22.585 --> 00:19:40.595
But a lot of it has to do, at least on print, is the way of some physical was able to take it and capture it onto the page and you can read it, and you can sort of hear the schmooze as you're reading it literally many times myself different rabbanim that I've heard them speak and I read this form and it's not the same.

00:19:41.237 --> 00:19:48.700
It's not automatic that when you say a speech and you transcribe it to print that it retains its vivacity.

00:19:48.700 --> 00:19:50.224
You know what I mean.

00:19:50.445 --> 00:19:51.869
It's remarkable, I can, I picture it.

00:19:51.869 --> 00:19:59.713
He writes like tomorrow, like you see him screaming with exclamation marks and it's beautiful, beautiful.

00:19:59.713 --> 00:20:05.605
Why this is for asking for the audience really To make it more accessible.

00:20:05.605 --> 00:20:10.612
Do you believe that there maybe would be a time that Das Tire would be published in English?

00:20:10.612 --> 00:20:13.655
Or perhaps get ArtScroll on board and just make a campaign.

00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:15.885
Honestly, I don't think that will happen.

00:20:15.885 --> 00:20:16.848
Why?

00:20:16.848 --> 00:20:25.173
I just don't A I don't think the family or the ones who would do it are into that.

00:20:25.173 --> 00:20:32.248
I feel they feel that its authenticity would be diminished, you know, if it became translated.

00:20:32.248 --> 00:20:38.915
It's just a personal feeling, just knowing the family and knowing, you know, the people behind it Again, will it eventually happen?

00:20:38.915 --> 00:20:39.180
Who knows?

00:20:39.180 --> 00:20:41.506
I know there are, you know, I do see.

00:20:41.506 --> 00:20:47.279
You know Rabbi I forgot his name Rabbi Alderstein or something does put out a weekly.

00:20:47.279 --> 00:20:48.683
That's terror in english.

00:20:48.683 --> 00:20:51.431
It's been done as a here and there pamphlets, things like that.

00:20:51.431 --> 00:20:53.223
I just don't see it.

00:20:53.223 --> 00:20:54.287
Uh, you know anyone?

00:20:54.287 --> 00:21:01.789
Uh, getting on board, you know from the family at least having a translation english again that down the line, who knows?

00:21:01.789 --> 00:21:04.281
It's 87 years now that it hasn't happened yet you?

00:21:04.402 --> 00:21:06.827
know and where's his family now?

00:21:06.827 --> 00:21:08.751
Like when you're referring to that family, who's in charge?

00:21:08.751 --> 00:21:09.663
Who are they and where are they?

00:21:10.184 --> 00:21:11.789
um, they're all over.

00:21:11.789 --> 00:21:14.823
I mean most of them in america, you know you know, whether lakewood and brooklyn.

00:21:14.823 --> 00:21:19.180
Muncie there's uh someone out to stroll, but we're loving the place, you know.

00:21:19.180 --> 00:21:20.321
But the, you know it's.

00:21:20.321 --> 00:21:23.626
Again, like I said, I don't know if there's one person in charge.

00:21:23.626 --> 00:21:27.833
It was his little son and Muncie is very involved with it.

00:21:27.833 --> 00:21:31.949
There's others involved with it, but again, it's not something I can see happening.

00:21:31.949 --> 00:21:33.762
I wouldn't be shocked if it happened.

00:21:33.762 --> 00:21:34.585
I'd be surprised.

00:21:35.287 --> 00:21:36.269
Mm, mm.

00:21:36.269 --> 00:21:43.288
All right, I guess I'm going to have to try to get in touch with the family.

00:21:43.288 --> 00:21:53.144
I feel like there's just obviously the authenticity needs to be probably protected and it's definitely something special, and sometimes it's even when you read the Vart in Hebrew.

00:21:53.144 --> 00:21:59.275
Sometimes it's almost painful to hear the truth coming, that it hurts to read.

00:22:01.182 --> 00:22:02.586
See, part of the reason is what you just said.

00:22:02.586 --> 00:22:07.509
You called it a Vart, one of the things a family, like a lot of people in the family, have an issue with.

00:22:07.509 --> 00:22:08.786
I know from the older generation.

00:22:08.786 --> 00:22:10.344
I'm from the younger generation.

00:22:10.344 --> 00:22:11.868
I don't have a problem with anybody.

00:22:11.929 --> 00:22:12.451
I love everybody.

00:22:13.520 --> 00:22:17.352
But, a lot of the older people are trying to protect whatever it is they're protecting.

00:22:17.352 --> 00:22:19.265
You know I won't call it a vart.

00:22:19.265 --> 00:22:19.928
It's not a vart.

00:22:19.928 --> 00:22:22.751
It's so much deeper than that.

00:22:22.751 --> 00:22:25.795
It's the total understanding of Arashi.

00:22:25.795 --> 00:22:26.435
It's the total.

00:22:26.435 --> 00:22:28.186
This is what the Pasuk means.

00:22:28.186 --> 00:22:32.709
This is not a that you say, it's not from that you write on a Pasha sheet.

00:22:32.709 --> 00:22:38.741
You know this is part of why they're very protective of the, of the authenticity of it.

00:22:38.741 --> 00:22:39.249
You know.

00:22:40.320 --> 00:22:43.210
He doesn't say you know, he tells you how to read Arashi.

00:22:43.210 --> 00:22:45.548
He tells you how to learn a lesson from Arashi.

00:22:45.548 --> 00:22:48.769
He teaches you, you know the basics of Amunah.

00:22:48.769 --> 00:22:49.731
You know everything's Amunah.

00:22:49.731 --> 00:22:53.730
Everything boils down to Amunah.

00:22:53.730 --> 00:22:55.205
That was his key.

00:22:56.382 --> 00:22:57.105
Why do you say that?

00:22:58.039 --> 00:23:00.585
Because that's just the overall message on.

00:23:00.585 --> 00:23:03.852
Everything he said was obviously Torah-based.

00:23:03.852 --> 00:23:07.880
But Amunah V'yid has to have Amunah Yidd has to learn Amunah from the Torah.

00:23:07.880 --> 00:23:14.167
You read Rishis, and if you read Vayikra, if you read the Varam, you have to be able to walk away with Amunah of Hashem.

00:23:14.167 --> 00:23:18.079
That's the key message that he was always pushing.

00:23:18.079 --> 00:23:28.144
Now, amunah doesn't just mean you know this psychedelic thing Amunah is throughra and through everything else and through Musser, but ultimately it's about Amun and Hashem.

00:23:29.189 --> 00:23:34.968
Wow, I never would have said that, I never would have thought that.

00:23:36.383 --> 00:23:41.142
Now that I said it, next time you read a piece, try to keep that in mind, you'll see this.

00:23:41.142 --> 00:23:45.987
You walk away from anything that he says At least that's personal, that's my personal opinion.

00:23:45.987 --> 00:23:47.826
You walk away from anything you learn from him.

00:23:47.826 --> 00:23:51.886
You walk away with a stronger Emunah and Hashem, and that's the key, you know.

00:23:52.400 --> 00:23:54.067
Right, Right, Right.

00:23:54.067 --> 00:23:59.181
And it's coming to mind a couple different, even examples of where it definitely feels like there's Emunah in in.

00:23:59.181 --> 00:24:08.151
Uh, I mean, how many times do you talk about Nesionis and Emunah Like, and how many times do you talk about Emunah's Chazal, Emunah's Chachamim?

00:24:08.652 --> 00:24:09.573
There you go.

00:24:09.573 --> 00:24:12.695
Emunah's Chazal is just an iteration of Emunah and Hashem.

00:24:12.695 --> 00:24:19.050
You know, it's all Emunah and Hashem.

00:24:19.050 --> 00:24:31.907
The stronger a person's Emunah is, the stronger he'll be able to fight in siena it's the stronger person's amuna the more, the better his title will be.

00:24:31.907 --> 00:24:32.147
It's all.

00:24:32.188 --> 00:24:33.412
It's based on the moon, amuna is the olive.

00:24:33.412 --> 00:24:34.856
That's what I love, for a reason, you know the key to everything.

00:24:34.856 --> 00:24:35.558
Wow, amuna is the key to everything.

00:24:35.558 --> 00:24:39.741
Let's put that as the podcast title absolutely wow.

00:24:40.462 --> 00:24:48.768
So also, I was thinking, as you were talking about what Reb Yerucham really stands for and you're saying that it's Emunah.

00:24:48.768 --> 00:25:04.576
I have like, even on my notes before I came on to have this discussion, thinking about what Reb Yerucham means to me and to try to compare and contrast what someone who's from the same tree, from the same family, what your zayden means to you.

00:25:04.576 --> 00:25:07.242
I was thinking that there's, he very much means to me.

00:25:07.242 --> 00:25:10.970
He's he's, he's shulling, he's.

00:25:10.970 --> 00:25:16.046
You know he talks a lot about completeness, which I was gonna ask for a perspective.

00:25:16.046 --> 00:25:28.625
He talks at great length, famously, about your, your etsem, your eye right, what defines you and defining your myelis, and that has come through in Revolbus, tahira, right, absolutely.

00:25:28.625 --> 00:25:32.828
So I'd be interested for a take on that.

00:25:32.828 --> 00:25:39.190
And also, how do you feel like maybe that's also in emunah or you feel like that's something different?

00:25:40.801 --> 00:25:43.946
There's emunah in Hashem, there's emunah in Chachamim, there's emunah in yourself.

00:25:43.946 --> 00:25:51.784
It's all keys to.

00:25:51.784 --> 00:25:52.510
That's what it's all about, right?

00:25:52.510 --> 00:25:52.713
You can't.

00:25:52.713 --> 00:25:53.299
You know, torah is a Shira.

00:25:53.299 --> 00:25:56.128
You can't get to the Shira until you have Amunah in Hashem.

00:25:56.128 --> 00:26:02.044
The stronger your Amunah in Hashem, the stronger your Amunah in Hashem, the stronger your Amunah in the Torah.

00:26:02.044 --> 00:26:10.829
And what the Torah teaches the stronger Yarmulid in Yiddishkeit, the stronger Yarmulid in yourself, the stronger Jew you can be, the more Muslim you can be like you said.

00:26:10.849 --> 00:26:17.595
Yes, shlemus is a tremendous, you know goal, in Kellum especially.

00:26:17.595 --> 00:26:21.038
But you know that was one of his things.

00:26:21.038 --> 00:26:25.309
I mean, he didn't just do things, he didn't do anything without thinking about it.

00:26:25.309 --> 00:26:27.666
Everything he did was on his ladder to perfection.

00:26:27.666 --> 00:26:29.767
He didn't blink without thinking.

00:26:29.767 --> 00:26:31.030
Should I blink today?

00:26:31.030 --> 00:26:34.597
No, he didn't make moves, he didn't run.

00:26:34.597 --> 00:26:37.910
Every move he made in his life was calculated.

00:26:37.910 --> 00:26:39.547
That was the Kelm way.

00:26:39.547 --> 00:26:46.342
Kelm would do things just, you can throw down a book on the floor, it makes a sound.

00:26:46.342 --> 00:26:47.326
Everyone jumps In.

00:26:47.326 --> 00:26:48.189
Kalim, they would have moved.

00:26:48.189 --> 00:26:53.092
Their life's work was total mastery over their every move.

00:26:53.092 --> 00:26:54.705
That's the kalim way.

00:26:54.705 --> 00:26:59.631
He was like the epitome of that.

00:26:59.631 --> 00:27:00.882
He was like the Altav.

00:27:00.882 --> 00:27:07.353
And Kalim famously said that if my whole derruch was done to produce him.

00:27:07.353 --> 00:27:08.213
It would have been worth it.

00:27:08.213 --> 00:27:15.133
Even the Altar of Mikael looked at him as my perfect prototype of what I was trying to do.

00:27:18.201 --> 00:27:25.853
And there's also definitely a strong undertone of Godless Ha'adim in his works as well.

00:27:25.853 --> 00:27:26.994
From Slavotka right.

00:27:27.319 --> 00:27:31.887
That's a Slavotka influence, of course, but that wasn't where he focused so much.

00:27:31.887 --> 00:27:37.009
You know, the author of Slavotka himself didn't necessarily have the same way of doing things, you know.

00:27:37.549 --> 00:27:38.112
Also yeah.

00:27:38.801 --> 00:27:39.523
The author of Slavotka.

00:27:39.523 --> 00:27:40.887
His way was to.

00:27:40.887 --> 00:27:47.759
You know, every person should grow and become, become whatever he's supposed to be.

00:27:47.759 --> 00:27:52.127
Ibrahim's way was more to mold everyone into be that.

00:27:52.127 --> 00:27:54.182
You know there was even a.

00:27:54.182 --> 00:27:59.768
You know I'm not going to say a machalikas, but the altar once quipped that.

00:27:59.768 --> 00:28:07.724
You know that Ibrahim is making soldiers Right Like you, just make everyone to be, you know, whatever, whereas I'm trying to mold them into something else.

00:28:07.724 --> 00:28:09.894
You know, each one on their own individuality.

00:28:09.894 --> 00:28:10.842
Again, it's a different derrach.

00:28:10.842 --> 00:28:21.484
No, that G-dless Adam just by definition has to let everyone reach their own potential, because you can't be G-dless Adam, you know, ask if you're have to be something.

00:28:21.484 --> 00:28:22.027
That's not you.

00:28:22.027 --> 00:28:29.226
And whereas his mahalaf was more like no, we know what adim hashalom looks like and we all got to get there.

00:28:30.339 --> 00:28:30.781
Really.

00:28:31.143 --> 00:28:31.364
You know.

00:28:31.364 --> 00:28:32.106
So it was more of a.

00:28:32.106 --> 00:28:35.707
Again, I'm not going to say it was a mahalik, it was chas v'shalom, but it was no.

00:28:36.721 --> 00:28:45.854
I always understood, and even at the end of that story, I always understood that Rabbi Rucham took the mussar and and there was a change, there was a shift like he actually changed the way that.

00:28:45.854 --> 00:28:58.806
I've heard it over and I know I could cite a source, even I know that, uh, rabbi huda geber, on his podcast from one of the episodes with rabbi roham, cites that story and I believe, also brings there that there you, can you he.

00:28:58.806 --> 00:29:04.769
There was some sort of change in the philosophy and that the new way of education was going to be to build soldiers.

00:29:04.769 --> 00:29:07.630
But then it's clear from the writings, especially in devarim, that.

00:29:07.630 --> 00:29:10.343
But we need to make sure everyone's doing it on his own, derrick.

00:29:10.343 --> 00:29:11.928
I mean, how many times do you say that's?

00:29:12.450 --> 00:29:19.470
so this is my own personal feeling, again, when I'm everything I'm saying is is my own personal uh, you know feeling of it.

00:29:19.470 --> 00:29:45.048
There was a story that I heard, actually from you know, a reliable source, that in 1929, when it was the massacre in chevron right which the chevron was obviously slabatka right and the story goes that there was a bachar who was lying dying on the floor bleeding, and the bachar who was bleeding turned to the bachar who was next to him and said here, take blood from me and put it on yourself so they'll think you're dead, so they won't kill you.

00:29:45.048 --> 00:29:47.907
Okay, and he saved the other bracha's life.

00:29:47.907 --> 00:29:48.442
That's what he did.

00:29:48.442 --> 00:29:54.402
He took right and they say and I heard this from a reliable source that Rabbi Ruchem was told of this story.

00:29:54.402 --> 00:30:01.205
He said, if that's what the altar's deruch could produce, maybe he has the right deruch.

00:30:06.060 --> 00:30:07.604
Again, that was godless enough to say, you know, maybe he has a point.

00:30:07.604 --> 00:30:14.346
If that's the ultimate of a person on the way out who's dying, could stop and think about, you know, the guy next to him, as opposed to worrying about his own life.

00:30:14.346 --> 00:30:16.580
Again, this is what I heard from reliable source.

00:30:16.580 --> 00:30:23.642
Um, but again, so maybe, maybe that that was like a little bit of a jolt to him that maybe there's something in it.

00:30:23.642 --> 00:30:25.987
You know, again, this is my own personal feelings.

00:30:26.027 --> 00:30:41.073
It's not documented or anything, it's just uh the personal feelings of the family, and and this is a behind the scenes approach seems to me also that it's very, very often is kind of more even true than what gets to the general public could be, could be listen.

00:30:41.093 --> 00:30:45.482
Like I said, you know, it's not that my opinion matters more than anyone else's, but this is just.

00:30:45.482 --> 00:30:46.103
You know.

00:30:46.103 --> 00:30:49.345
When you grow up, you know many decades and this is all you hear.

00:30:49.345 --> 00:30:50.705
And you hear everything is.

00:30:50.705 --> 00:30:53.827
You know, you hear things and you pick up things.

00:30:53.847 --> 00:31:12.789
You know taking from what you think your Zayda is, and if he was around Beznan HaZeh and he would see, you know, you know, well, let's maybe.

00:31:12.789 --> 00:31:15.183
I want to give an introduction to the question, a short one, just that.

00:31:15.183 --> 00:31:18.821
We definitely have already discovered that Rabbi Rucham is kind of.

00:31:18.821 --> 00:31:24.355

SPECIAL EPISODE! Interview with Rav Yisroel Levovitz Discussing the Life and Legacy of His Great-Grandfather Rav Yeruchom Levovitz on his Yahrtzeit (Rebroadcast)

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