Rav Dovid Feinsteinzt”L

44 PHOTOS: AVRAHAM ELBAZ, DOV BERG, FLASH87 IMAGES, JDN, MaTTIS GOLDBERG, SIMCHA WEINMAN, TSEMACH GLENN, TZVI BLUM, YISSOCHOR DUNOFF. Rav Dovid Dovid Rav Feinstein ZT”l 26 Cheshvan 5781 | November 13, 2020 He was a true osnam, a unique, towering Towering godol, whom Hashem placed in our generation to protect us. We have no way of understanding or captur- ing what we have lost. We will try, in these Greatness ~ pages, to paint a few brushstrokes from his long life, cognizant of the fact that we will barely scratch the surface. Moshe, who un- Born to Kedushah til then had Spectacular Rav Dovid was born in the year 1929 felt it neces- in the town of Luban, Russia. He was the sary to stay in oldest son of his illustrious parents, Rav Luban with the Moshe and Rebbetzin Shima. The early beleaguered Yid- Simplicity years of his life were extremely difficult. den so that he could By the time Rav Dovid was born, the ra- tend to their spiritual bidly anti-Semitic Bolshevik government needs, came to the con- BY AVROHOM BIRNbaUM gedolim. There was so much more about of Stalin was tightening its stranglehold on clusion that if he could him that was hidden than what was re- “There are no words to describe his per- Yiddishkeit and was enacting gezeirah af- not be mechanech his chil- vealed. He lived with Hashem in a way that sonality,” said Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky, ter gezeirah in order to terrorize the people dren, he had no choice but only Hashem understood his greatness and rosh yeshivah of the Philadelphia Yeshiva, into relinquishing their Torah observance. to leave. He felt that it was his inner essence. at the levayah. “He was simply an ‘oisnam Slowly, they cut off Rav Moshe’s par- his obligation to raise his chil- Yes, we can try to describe his gaonus, fun ah mentch,’ a totally unique and special nassah and made it nearly impossible for dren as G-d-fearing Jews even his greatness and his mastery of all areas human being made up of so many facets. him to survive. Even worse, however, were if they would not become talmi- of Torah, as well as his profound hasma- Rav Dovid was kulo tov…” the gezeiros against chinuch. If one taught dei chachomim, and when even dah and his broad shoulders as a posek in There are times when the towering and Torah to one’s child, that alone was enough that became impossible, he left. halacha, a posek who ruled on matters that unique greatness of a person can be bet- of a reason to be sent to Siberia, from where Rav Dovid was about eight no one else could or would rule on. Yes, we ter described not by what one can say, but nearly no one returned years old when they left Russia. can try to describe his phenomenal humil- by what one cannot say. Rav Shmuel Ka- In the introduction to the eighth vol- Rav Dovid’s younger brother, Rav ity, which was unparalleled. Yes, we can menetsky, in his hesped for the posek ha- ume of Igros Moshe, there is a biographical Reuven, who was born after the try to describe the remarkable tzedakah and dor, Rav Dovid Feinstein zt”l, spoke for chesed in which he was engaged. We can barely two minutes, but from what he didn’t try to encapsulate the depth of the simplic- say, we perhaps heard more than what he ity of his emunah and the remarkable pow- and everyone else did say. er of his tefillah. Nevertheless, after all of Rav Dovid Feinstein was a complete that, the truth is that no one actually knew “oisnam fun ah mentch,” a completely sin- him. He was kulo kodesh and kulo kodesh gular individual who cannot be described l’Hashem, with so much more hidden than in the conventional way that we describe revealed. With his brother, Rav Reuven Feinstein. family came to America, writes in one of his seforim that when With his father, Rav Moshe Feinstein. the family left Russia, they still did not have papers to enter ei- ther Eretz Yisroel or America. The family thus stopped in Riga, Latvia, which at the time was not yet under Communist rule, and waited there to procure their papers. He de- scribes how the Yid- den in Latvia were sketch of Rav Moshe. It is written there that amazed by the the government even forbade children from brilliance of taking part in the family Pesach Seder, be- the seven- cause “such an event destroys the soul of year-old the child due to terrible customs, such as Dovid. stealing the Afikoman.” They In school, three of the Feinstein children, Rav Dovid and his two sisters, were bullied by their teachers and fellow stu- dents because they had the dubious status of being children of the rov. The situation became so untenable that Rav With Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky. 26 Cheshvan 5781 | November 13, 2020 45 would start a posuk and he would finish it. ing towards the back of the bais medrash, I came and brought the rebbetzin bread. I He was able to rattle off pesukim by heart. in front of a pillar, where he was largely went towards Rav Moshe’s room to see if This was despite the fact that his father had hidden from view. anyone was there. As I got close to the door, not taught him the pesukim, because doing Reb Aryeh Don Greher, Rav Dovid’s I heard a heated conversation. Apparently, so would have almost certainly meant a nephew, recalls coming to learn in the ye- Rav Moshe was preparing the next volume death sentence. How did Rav Dovid know shiva in 1959. “Rav Dovid was my maggid of Igros Moshe on Even Ha’ezer for print, the pesukim? When his father was learning shiur. He was so humble. He didn’t deliver and a question arose as to whether he should in the next room, the young Dovid would the shiur in the bais medrash, not even in print a follow-up teshuvah defending what listen to him learning and would remember the library, but rather on the top floor. I was considered a controversial p’sak at that the pesukim just from listening. would often notice that he would say the time. Some people in the room, with raised While in Riga, Rav Moshe was offered Gemara when he wasn’t even looking in voices, were trying to urge Rav Moshe to a rabbinic position in Latvia, but he turned the Gemara. He knew it all by heart. print that teshuvah. I felt that I should go it down. He explained that the main reason Rav Moshe knew the greatness of his tell Rav Dovid what was happening. I went he had left Russia was for the chinuch of son, Rav Dovid. In his sefer, Igros Moshe to him and told him. Later, he came to Rav his children and he was afraid that Latvia (Gittin, Part 3), he writes a sevarah and Moshe and, with total bittul and humility, was too close to Russia, a fear that was adds, “My son, Hagaon Harav Dovid, said, ‘Tatteh, I will not scream at you, but I proven all too correct when, a few years also agrees to this sevarah.” On other oc- hold that you suffered enough with regard later, during World War II, the communists casions, Rav Moshe would say, “My son, to that teshuvah. I also spoke it over with swallowed up Latvia, making it part of the Dovid, knows Shas.” the mashgiach [Rav Michel Barenbaum] Soviet Union. Rav Dovid’s close talmid, Rav Boruch and he agreed as well…’ Not long after Rav Moshe arrived in Moskowitz, author of the seforim Vedibarta “I was amazed at the neimus and humil- the United States, he was appointed rosh Bom, which contain many of Rav Dovid’s ity that he displayed even when he felt the yeshivah of Mesivta Tiferes Yerushalayim halachic rulings and the rationales behind need to voice his concern…” (MTJ) on the Lower East Side. His young them, related, “I once asked the rosh yeshi- son, Dovid, entered the portals of MTJ as vah about a certain sevarah if it was his se- Profound Hasmadah – an elementary school talmid…and basi- varah or his father’s. Rav Dovid answered, a Giant in Torah cally never left. He remained in MTJ for ‘I don’t know, because whatever I have is Many years ago, Rav Moshe Feinstein bais medrash, and then, after his marriage, from my father.’” was walking on the streets of the Lower he continued in kollel and was later ap- Indeed, the profundity of the loss of Rav East Side with Rav Tuvia Goldstein, rosh pointed maggid shiur by his father. Upon Dovid is also the fact that we lost a talmid yeshivah of Yeshiva Emek Halacha. Dur- Rav Moshe’s passing in 1986, he became muvhak of Rav Moshe, Rav Moshe’s To- ing the course of their conversation, he told rosh yeshivah. rah, and Rav Moshe’s sevaros. Rav Tuvia, “You should know that my son, He never left MTJ or the Lower East Rav Simcha Bunim Cohen, who grew Rav Dovid, knows the entire Shas with Ris- Side…and MTJ and the Lower East Side up on the Lower East Side, remembers honim!” never left him. He remained the same Rav from his early youth how Rav Dovid was When Rav Moshe said this, he was re- Dovid, with his simplicity hiding his great- constantly learning with profound hasma- ferring to Shas with the hasagah of Rav ness.

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