A Story about Reb Moshe

I was in Staten Island this week, and heard the following story from Rabbi Yosef Asher Weiss, Reb Reuven Feinstein's son in law.

Rabbi Weiss's brother, Rabbi Moshe Meir, was always close to Reb Moshe as a bachur in Staten Island.  When he was seventeen, he was in the Rosh Yeshiva's office when a package from Russia arrived.  The package was festooned with postage stamps and stickers and customs marks.  It contained the pirush on Yerushalmi Dmai that Reb Moshe had written.   Reb Moshe had written pirushim on much of the Yerushalmi, and all his writings were lost in Russia.  Miraculously, someone found his pirush on Maseches Dmai, and traced its author, and had sent it to Reb Moshe.  Reb Moshe opened the package and lovingly opened his notebook, reading what he had written with great joy.

Moshe Meir was thinking about what it means to write on the Yerushalmi, and he asked, "Did the Rosh Yeshiva write only on the Masechtos that don't exist in Bavli?  Reb Moshe smiled and said, "You are seventeen.  When I was your age, I had already finished my pirush on Yerushalmi Bava Kamma, Bava Metzia, and Bava Basra."

When Yosef Asher told me this story, it reminded me of a similar incident I experienced.  In the summers, I used to spend some time with Reb Moshe.  I remember discussing with him several teshuvos he was in middle of writing, particularly one on כל דפריש בדבר שיש לו מתירים.  In any case, I had learned Yevamos that year, and I had a problem with one of the pirushim on the Yerushalmi about the status of a Yevama after the consummation of Yibum.  I told it to Reb Moshe, and he agreed that the pirush cannot be correct.  I mentioned that the Noda BeYehuda, in a Teshuva, expressed strong words against someone who questioned a ruling in a previous teshuva on the basis of something one of the pirushim on the Yerushalmi says.  I don't remember the Noda Be'Yehuida's words now, but they were something along the lines of "What kind of chutzpah do you have to waste my time with a kashe based on some nonsense that person said?"  Reb Moshe said that although he agrees that the pirush cannot be right, we cannot dismiss the mefareish with words as strong as the Noda BeYehuda, because "before you begin writing a pirush on Yerushalmi, you have to know all of the Bavli clearly."  In the original, איידער מען פאנגט אן שרייבען א פירוש אף ירושלמי מוז מען קענען גאנץ בבלי קלאר.

We continued talking for a few minutes, and he told me about the pirush he wrote on the Yerushalmi, and he mentioned that he began writing his pirush when he was   thirteen   years   old.

There is a plague of audacity in the world, which has led to the infamous justification for disputing the great poskim, namely, "He's a Rabbi, and I'm a Rabbi."  If you don't understand the nuances of psak and lomdus, it is easy to be misled into thinking this attitude has some legitimacy.  It does not.  The examples that come to mind are Mozart and Louisa May Alcott.  Their gifts were not talents that were quantitatively greater than those of their peers.  These were categorically distinct talents.  Imagine, then, one who has been blessed with a full measure of the particular and sublime talent of the Jewish people- a natural skill and affinity for profoundly interpreting and understanding Retzon Hashem, Hashems' will- who then, preceded by innumerable generations of and surrounded by gedolim, indefatigably and humbly works to develop that skill to it's greatest potential.  He's a Rabbi I'm a Rabbi indeed.

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Reb Moshe; A Story About Gadlus

Every once in a while, the street gets aroused about some psak of Reb Moshe's, and I think it's worth recalling just what he was. Im rishonim ke'malachim, anu ki'bnei adam. Im rishonim ki'bnei adam, anu...ke'stam chamorim. (Shabbos 112b)

If one has never studied the Chazon Ish, it is difficult to comprehend the depth of his encyclopedic knowledge. He writes on every Torah topic, from Netillas Yadayim to Choshen Mishpat to Taharos. His diagrams for hilchos Kiddush Hachodesh and Mezuza and Eiruvin are famously daunting. Often, when you read his words, you realize that the gemara can be understood on an level entirely different than you had apprehended, evidence that great height and great depth and great breadth can co-exist. His creative and insightful integration of the entire Shas and commentaries are like a shower of cold water on a hot day. As the Netziv said about learning Reb Akiva Eiger, you feel you should be standing up when you learn from his sefarim.

Reb Moshe was in Eretz Yisrael once, and Reb Beinish Finkel, the Rosh Yeshiva of the Mir, visited him. My mechutan is a cousin of Reb Beinish's, and he talked to Reb Beinish soon afterwards. First, let me point out that Reb Beinish, besides being very close with all the Gedolei Eretz Yisrael, was the nephew of the Chazon Ish, having married the daughter of Reb Shmuel Greineman, the Chazon Ish's brother-in-law (Rebbitzen Greineman was the Chazon Ish's sister,) and he learned with him for seven years before he became Rosh Yeshiva. (At that time, he was a guard at an ice factory in Bnei Brak, and he stayed in the factory all night, and he would spend the entire day with the Chazon Ish.)

Reb Beinish said that in the time he was sitting with Reb Moshe, ten she'eilos came in, from all the Miktzo'os hatorah, involving the most disparate topics. He said that Reb Moshe answered every question immediately and thoroughly, as if he had just that moment finished learning the relevant subject. Reb Beinish's words were "Dos hob ich kein mohl nisht ge'zehn." Someone asked him, "Afilu bah der Fetter????" He answered "Afilu bah der Fetter." This I have never seen, even by Uncle.

And a similar story:
Reb Tzvi Hirsch Meisels, the Veitzener Rav, lived in Chicago when I was a child. He was once at my parents' house for a parlor meeting on behalf of, I think, Chinuch Atzmai. As he sat at the table, there was talking among the honored guests, and Rabbi Meisels mentioned that he had just come back from New York, where he sat on a Beis Din with Reb Moshe, adjudicating a question concerning a certain large organization in New York. He said that he spent weeks with Reb Moshe, and he could guarantee that there is not one se'if in the four parts of Shulchan Aruch that Reb Moshe does not have at his fingertips. A young man who was listening interjected, foolishly, "How can that be? (He) heard in the name of the Chazon Ish that in our days, there is nobody that remembers every se'if in Shulchan Aruch!" Rabbi Meisels responded "Nu, there are two possible answers to the kashe. To be mekayeim the words of the Chazon Ish, maybe there is a se'if that Reb Moshe doesn't remember; but when he needs it, he remembers it. Or, the Chazon Ish just didn't know Reb Moshe."

And a story from Reb Moshe's nephew, Reb Michoel Feinstein ztzal of Bnei Brak, who was married to the Brisker Rov's daughter, Rebbitzen Lifsheh.  According to Reb Michoel's son in law, Rav Tzvi Kaplan of Yeshivas Kodshim in Yerushalayim, Reb Michoel said many, many times that "the uncle (RebMoshe)  is greater than the shver (the Brisker Rov)."  One time, Rebbitzen Lifsheh came in and overheard him saying it, and she said, "Greater?  Greater? Maybe maybe in Bekius, but in 'lernen?' Never!"

And the funny thing is, that reading Reb Moshe's teshuvos or dibros, one feels, occasionally, that it is not that extraordinary, that the ideas are not as spectacular as in the more Yeshivishe achronim, that the bekius is not that unusual. I often felt that Reb Moshe's style and content are reminiscent of the Pnei Yehoshua. But we all know of contemporaries who have said that Reb Moshe was a nice Russian Rov, but no more than that. Who am I to say who is right and who is wrong? But, and with all due respect, I wonder, why was I moved write about this topic after hearing Parshas Korach?