Hespeidim for Rebbitzen Shelia Feinstein

Rabbi Gershon Weiss at 9:34
Rabbi Bussu from Shaarei Torah at 23:27
My Shver, Harav Reuven Feinstein, at 35:15
My brother in law Harav Dovid Feinstein at 42:50
My divrei hesped begin at 55:55
Harav Yosef Asher Weiss at 1:07:29
Rav Avi Feinstein at 1:18:40

My son, Harav Mordechai, was maspid in the yeshiva the day after the Shiva ended, along with my Shver and R Gershon Weiss. I'll offer a synopsis. He focused on something my mother in law taught all her grandchildren. When a challenge presents itself, you have no right to say that you can't do it, and you have no right to say that you are not worthy of being the one that does it. You accept the challenge and you do it with Ratzon. He explained that Ratzon, and the same is true of the English word Will, has two meanings. It means discipline and it means willingness, ratzon. Do what Hashem has placed in front of you with discipline, but not only discipline, do it with desire, with energy, with alacrity. There's an expression, "אין דבר העומד בפני הרצון", nothing resists a man's will. The word Ratzon means will, and it means willingness - Ratzon and Rotzeh.
The second half of her legacy is that once you have accomplished what you set out to do, don't think that you are so great and don't rest on your laurels. Don't fall into the traps of כוחי ועוצם ידי or complacency. Your hatzlacha stems from two things: your decision and discipline, and Siyata Dishmaya. Without Siyata Dishmaya you would have accomplished nothing. And your ability brings with it a never ending life long duty!

This attitude, this way of life, reminds us of something Rav Schwab said. He asked, what does it mean הסר שטן מלפנינו ומאחרינו? We understand what the Satan before is, it tries to convince us not to do mitzvos, or to do aveiros. But what's the Satan after? The answer is that the Satan before is "I can't do it." The Satan after is "How great I am, look what wonderful things I have accomplished."
Rebbitzen Sheila was a living example of someone that rejected both the yetzer hara of מלפנינו and the yetzer hara of מאחרינו, and she taught her grandchildren to do the same, both by example and by not so subtle words.

Here is the audio of Harav Mordechai's hesped in the Yeshiva of Staten Island.


(I have a lengthy discussion of the words מלפנינו ומאחרינו in the next post, on Parshas Shoftim, here.)