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Thought for the Day: Baruch Dayan haEmes -- Rabbi Shmuel Yehuda Levin zt"l, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Telshe Chicago

There is an old and not very good movie about someone who is 50,000 years old. The only reason I mention it is that there was one very good line in the movie. At this point in his life he happened to be a history teacher. One of his students, playing along as though they really believed him, said she now understood why he was such a good history teacher -- he had, after all, seen and lived it all. "No," he replied, "I am one person with one perspective. The history I teach is from what I have read, just like you."

I cannot possibly understand, let alone express, the magnitude of the loss the world experienced this last Shiva Asar b'Tammuz with the sudden -- and wholly unexpected -- p'tira of Rabbi Shmuel Yehuda Levin zt"l, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Telshe Chicago. I can express the deep sense of loss I personally feel. I can also tell you about the profound impact the attendance of his levaya had on me.

A few months ago, I attended the H3 Business Halacha Summit. R' Shmuel gave the opening keynote address. He said something that many of the speakers expressed: that it was inspiring to see so many businessmen taking time off work to be sure they were keeping the Torah properly. There was something about they way R' Shmuel said it, though. I felt inexplicable empathy from him. I can't explain it any better than that. I went home that night and told my wife that I know what I want to do when I retire (not so far off, b'ezras HaShem!) -- I want to go ask R' Shmuel for an oral entrance exam and I want to be in his shiur. This was not idle whimsy on my part, and I was shaken when I opened the email Sunday morning.

What I saw and heard at the levaya, only deepened my appreciation of what I and the world has lost. The Telshe beis medrash was packed wall to wall; any place that did not have a chair there was a mourner. The faces of many, many there -- of all ages -- were wet with tears. The hespeidim were mostly in Yiddush, so I did not understand them as well I would have liked. Still, I could feel the sorrow and distress. I was able to understand enough, though, to pick to pick this up: Rabbi Shmuel Levin treated each of his -- it seems like 100s -- of talmidim as his own sons. More than that, his life was dedicated absolutely to his talmidim/sons. The make the point, two of R' Shmuel's sons said this:

The gemara relates (Brachos 61b) that as Rabbi Akiva was being tortured to death -- flesh ripped off by iron combs -- he was lovingly accepting the Sovereignty of HaShem; he was saying Krias Sh'ma. The gemara relates that his talmidim asked if that was really necessary right now. R' Akiva answered what he answered; see the gemara there. But let's take a step back. R' Akiva is being tortured to death and he is using his final moments int this world to devote himself fully and loving to HaShem. Then his talmidim interrupted with a question. R' Akiva was able to answer them?! Isn't he busy enough? No! The talmid has a question and so the rebbi has to answer.

That was their father. That was the gadol we just lost. Every talmid was a son, every question got first priority -- even at the expense of his own striving for perfection. The talmid has a question, the rebbi has to answer.

It seems to me that was what I felt. I heard R' Shmuel speak once and to a whole room full of people. Yet I felt, "I need him as my rebbi." I couldn't feel the sorrow and distress that his talmidim did, and that itself give me even more sorrow at what I missed.

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