C8 11 TAMMUZ 5773 JUNE 19, 2013 Community

Biography / By Yochonon Donn Hagaon Harav , zt”l: A Rosh Yeshivah Who Cared for Every Yid In honor of the Suvalker ’s 20th Yahrtzeit

“Are you sure you could on Erev Pesach,” said Mrs. accurately portray Rav Stein. “Some nights he would Lifshitz?” stay up through the night” to Binyamin Yudin, a read of the pain people talmid of Harav Dovid Lifshitz, expressed in their letters. the famed Suvalker Rav who was a Rosh Yeshivah in ‘We Are All Suvalkers’ Rabbeinu Yitzchok But aside from Reb Dovid Elchanan for nearly a half cen- being a lamdan, an askan and a tury, was doubtful that such a Rosh Yeshivah, he was a Rav great mind, yet a man not as and in Suvalk. The repu- well-known as other Gedolim, tation that preceded him led would be accurately portrayed the Skokie, Illinois, kehillah in a newspaper article. where he was initially hired as But for the 20th yahrtzeit Rosh Yeshivah of Beis Medrash commemoration Monday, L’ after coming to the Rabbi Yudin agreed that the U.S., to declare: “We are all attempt must be made. Suvalkers.” Rabbi Yudin was described It was in Suvalk, a city in by the family of Harav Lifshitz, northeastern close to whose yahrtzeit was marked the border with , that this week with shiurim and Reb Dovid first became known events across the tri-state area, to the world. as someone firmly in the family Born in 1906 to Reb Yaakov loop during the 1960s, when he Arye and Ittel Lifshitz, Reb was in the Suvalker Rav’s . Dovid showed an eye for Torah During an extended inter- from a young age. Together view, the Rav of Fair Lawn, N.J., with a friend, Avraham the 10- gives no hint of the esteem his year-old wrote a peirush called great rebbi held him in, during Tal Yelados — the Dew of a discussion about the enigma Children — on sifrei Daniel, of a Rosh Yeshivah who spoke a Mishlei and Ezra. poor English yet managed to The two children divided capture the hearts of the kisvei between them- American-born and -bred selves. Reb Dovid was devastat- talmidim many decades his ed years later when he lost his junior. part of the sefer while traveling “What made Reb Dovid on a train. unique was his incredible Shortly after that, the events warmth,” said Rabbi Yudin, that turned Reb Dovid’s life on who gives a weekly shiur on the its trajectory began evolving. radio. “One of his favorite Reb Dovid’s paternal grand- expressions was ‘Kumpt nenter father, Harav Zalman — come closer.’ And he really Lifshitz, was a baal habayis meant it.” who devoted so much of his Reb Dovid, 86 at the time of time to learning that he his petirah, was known among authored the Olas Shlomo on his talmidim for his ability to Kodshim from his home in condense his vast knowledge Grodna. As the Great War gained as a prime talmid of raged on around them, the Harav Shimon Shkopp, zt”l, Lifshitz family gathered in along with his expertise in all Grodna as Reb Shlomo Zalman of the commonly learned Rabbi Weinberger, Rav of American boy like Reb Dovid.” Hatzolah during WWII, a lay on his deathbed. When he and that in Mrs. Sarah Ittel Stein, one of founding member of Chinuch was niftar, Reb Yaakov Arye he knew by heart, and funnel it Woodmere, came to YU seek- Reb Dovid’s three daughters Atzmai, an early leader of remained with his family in into the minds of his talmidim. ing a yeshivah to learn in, but and a daughter-in-law of Harav Torah Umesorah, and later as a Grodna, where Dovid celebrat- “He had the ability to trans- also a rebbi to guide him in life Chaim Stein, zt”l, the late Rosh member of the Agudas ed his bar . port and bring Suvalk and the and lead him in personal Yeshivah of Telshe Yeshivah in Harabbanim and president of In 1920, the majority of great personalities of growth and direction. Cleveland, recalled her child- Ezras Torah. Europe’s Rabbanim gathered European Jewry that we were An American teenager who hood where phone calls, a rari- “I remember picking up the in Vilna to discuss how the not exposed to here in spoke not a word of , he ty and maybe a cause for alarm phone and asking, ‘Who is it?’” olam haTorah could survive the America,” Rabbi Yudin said. found that rebbi in Reb Dovid, in those days, were common in Mrs. Stein recalled, “and a onslaught caused by the double “He was able to bring it by the who gave him all the time in her home as her father dedicat- voice would say, ‘Meishe assault of the convulsions of way he dressed and the way he the world. ed himself to an array of causes Feinshtein,’ and I would yell the First World War and the acted... to bring it to American “Not a day goes by that I in the Torah world. across the house, ‘Papa, its farming out of Jewish youth to talmidim in the yeshivah. He don’t think of my rebbi,” Rabbi “Don’t be nervous,” she Meishe Feinshtein.’” the ideologies of Communism, was able to bring the mesorah Weinberger said at the recalled her father saying. “The He took his work with Ezras Bundism or . to us.” University hazkarah for Reb early, early morning (defined Torah, undertaken at the per- “Give me Yavneh and her “We felt there was a connec- Dovid on Sunday. “He made me as five in the morning) phone sonal urging of Harav Yosef sages,” declared Rabban tion to an earlier generation,” into who I am today.” call is from Rav Avraham Eliyahu Henkin, zt”l, extreme- Yochanan ben Zakkai 2,000 Harav , a Elaborating on that theme, Kalmanovitch, and late at night ly seriously — especially before years ago. talmid from the 1970s, Rabbi Weinberger told it is from Rav . Yamim Tovim, his daughter “Give me Grodna and her affirmed in an interview. “We Hamodia that “He didn’t speak Phone calls during the day are said, when he was asked to sign yeshivah,” Harav Chaim Ozer heard stories, but with him it English, he came from a totally from Rav .” off on huge sums for poor fam- Grodzensky proclaimed to was very powerful. We felt a different culture. And yet, I Reb Dovid was in constant ilies. Harav at the connection to something big- don’t recall a rebbi understand- contact with the Gedolei Hador “I remember him in the Vilna knessiah. ger, something greater.” ing the nuances of the life of an as a member of the Vaad study, reading over the letters Reb Chaim Ozer, Europe’s Community 11 TAMMUZ 5773 JUNE 19, 2013 HAMODIA C9 undisputed Hador, in the 1970s, Rabbi Weinberger charged Reb Shimon with the said that he went to the job of revivifying Torah in Steipler’s home to purchase a Poland by becoming the head set of Kehillas Yaakov. The of Yeshivah Shaar HaTorah in Steipler, Harav Yaakov Yisrael Grodna. Kanievsky, zt”l, refused to sell Arriving in Grodna shortly the entire set to a young afterward, Reb Shimon found bachur, arguing that he didn’t ready ears in the form of Reb need more than the volume on Dovid and a small coterie of his the masechta he was learning. friends. The relationship blos- But when he was informed somed when shortly after his that the bachur before him was arrival, regional events forced a talmid of Reb Dovid, the Reb Shimon to consider clos- Steipler backtracked. ing the yeshivah. Reb Dovid “The Suvalker Rav?” he and a small number of inquired. “Reb Dovid Lifshitz talmidim were invited to the is a very chashuve person, a Rosh Yeshivah’s room to dis- very respected talmid cuss how to keep the kol Torah chacham.” strong. He then went to his sefarim They were successful, and shrank and removed an entire Reb Dovid developed a lifelong set of sefarim to sell to Rabbi love for Reb Shimon that did Weinberger. not end even decades after the While the Rav — Harav latter’s passing. Yoshe Ber Soloveitchek, zt”l, Harav Lifshitz dancing (L) at a chasunah with two of his mechutanim, Harav Chaim Stein (R) and Harav Yaakov And Reb Dovid succeeded in Kamenetzky, in the mid 1970s. the Rosh Yeshivah — was con- passing on that reverence he sidered a thinker and a truthful had for his rebbi to successive purveyor of the Brisker meso- generations of his own rah in YU, Reb Dovid’s shiur talmidim. was authentically Litvish, “I heard from Mori v’Rabi heavy on Rishonim. But the Rav Shimon, zt”l,” punctuated respect the two had for each with a deferential rise from his other was remarkable to watch seat and a tremble in his voice, — such as when an elderly was a common refrain during woman who was in the middle his shiur. of sitting shivah came to Reb In 1926, Reb Shimon sug- Yoshe Ber asking if she were gested that his talmid go to the allowed to attend her grand- Mirrer Yeshivah, where child’s chasunah. Europe’s best talmidim Go to Reb Dovid, the Rav learned. Reb Dovid emerged advised. during that time learning “The Rav knew hilchos under Harav Leizer Yudel aveilus!” Rabbi Yudin Finkel, zt”l, the Rosh Yeshivah, exclaimed in amazement. “But and Harav Yerucham Levovitz, the Rav knew that if there was zt”l, the , as a baki in anybody who could — who all the primary Rishonim and would — find a heter, it was Reb Acharonim, which he had Dovid.” learned by heart, as well as a A Chassid of the serious man with a refined , Harav Yoel Teitelbaum, nature. zt”l, related that he was once In later years, sitting next to meshamesh the Rebbe during a Reb Dovid during shiur, Rabbi Harav Lifshitz speaking at the Ezras Torah chanukas habayis in Ramat Aharon in 1969. (L-R): Unidentified, Harav Elazar trip to Florida in the 1960s. Weinberger saw him look into Shach, Harav , Harav Yisroel Gustman, Rabbi Shlomo Lorencz, Harav Dovid Lifshitz (speaking), Staying in the same city was a Rashba and excitedly repeat a unidentified, ybl”c, Harav . Harav Simcha Elberg, editor of long passage. Unbeknownst to the Hapardes Torah periodical, the class, he was turned to a that city. and Reb Dovid. different page and was reciting The couple got married in The Chassid said the two it verbatim. 1933 and settled in Suvalk. The decided to visit the Rebbe in “He was very excited and he esteem Reb Dovid was held in order to speak in learning. said the entire thing from by the Mir was evident in the They arrived at 8:00 p.m., and beginning to the end. It was a fact that when the Mashgiach, remained absorbed in their long Rashba and he was Reb Yerucham, was niftar in discussion until midnight. screaming it out loud,” Rabbi 1936, the hanhalah asked him When eleven of the fore- Weinberger said. “And it was to travel to Mir to deliver the most Roshei Yeshivah in the all by heart, he was on the yeshivah’s hesped on behalf of U.S. issued their landmark ban wrong page.” the talmidim traditionally in 1956 to join an organization “He seemed to us that he given at the end of the shivah . with a non-Orthodox compo- knew the entire Torah by heart. (Throughout the years Reb nent, a decision that reverber- There wasn’t anything that we Dovid was also asked to be ates until today, Reb Dovid was asked him that he wasn’t com- maspid various Gedolim, such among them. pletely comfortable with.” as Harav Yaakov Kamenetzky, Mrs. Stein remembers clear- One noted Rosh Yeshivah in zt”l, his mechutan and Rosh ly waking up early one morning the who learned Yeshivah of Yeshivah Torah to hear loud sobbing coming with Reb Dovid during those Vodaath; Harav Moshe from her father’s room. He had Harav Lifshitz with Harav Chaim Stein, holding one of their mutual einaklach. days once said in wonder, “Rav Feinstein, zt”l, and Harav just received word that his Lifshitz knew the following Aharon Kotler, zt”l, Rosh close friend from the Mir, sefarim: Ketzos Hachoshen, Yeshivah of Bais Medrash Harav Leib Malin, zt”l, Rosh Nesivos Hamishpat, Shev Govoha in Lakewood — all sin- Yerucham’s son’s wife gave Yidden. Yeshivah of Beis Hatalmid, had Shmaatsa and Meshovev gular honors.) birth to a boy, now known as been niftar. Nesivos — he knew these The awe Reb Dovid, as all Reb Yerucham Levovitz, who Beloved by His “It was the saddest face I sefarim like aleph-beis!” the talmidim, had for Reb currently lives in Lakewood. Contemporaries ever saw on my father,” she It was Reb Leizer Yudel who Yerucham was astounding. When Reb Dovid was honored Reb Dovid’s new title said. suggested Reb Dovid when On a ship in 1941 from with krias hashem and heard remained with him his entire One of Reb Dovid’s closest Harav Yosef Yuselovich, the Europe to San Francisco — the name of his Mashgiach, he life, through a short-lived stay friends in life was Harav Chaim Rav of Suvalk, came seeking a along with Harav Avraham fainted from hisragshus. in Skokie and a half century of Shmulevitz, zt”l, the son-in- for his only daughter, Yaffen, zt”l, Rosh Yeshivah of Reb Dovid’s shver was niftar teaching in YU. The name law of Reb Dovid’s Rosh Tzippora Chava. It was under- Novardok, and Harav Moshe in 1935, and Reb Dovid, at the “Suvalker Rav” evoked an awe Yeshivah, Reb Leizer Yudel, stood at the time that her hus- Shatzkes, zt”l, the Lomza Rav young age of 29, was appointed in Gedolim who were familiar and a from both band would one day take over — was Reb Yerucham’s son. by Reb Chaim Ozer as Rav of a with him. Grodna and the Mir. the prestigious rabbanus of During the trip, Reb city of more than 20,000 During a visit to During a trip to Eretz C10 HAMODIA 11 TAMMUZ 5773 JUNE 19, 2013 Community

Yisrael in 1962, the Lifshitzes graver by the day, it was on 28 were invited for the first night Cheshvan, Avivit’s yahrtzeit, seudah on by that she appeared with an ethe- Harav , zt”l, real glow when her children Rosh Yeshivah of Chevron, and came to visit her. Later that day the second night to eat with she passed away, confident that Reb Chaim Shmulevitz, who her young child’s yahrtzeit was then too sick to out of would remain bound with hers, bed. unforgotten. Reb Chaim indicated that he “The lengths that this wanted Reb Dovid to sit at the Yiddishe mamma went through head of the table in his place, to make sure that her daugh- and to make . (Reb ter’s yahrtzeit should not be Dovid refused, to Reb Chaim’s forgotten,” Reb Chaim Stein obvious disappointment.) exclaimed when he heard this. A member of the Shmulevitz family said that when Reb Teaching a Way of Life Dovid would come visit Reb Rabbi Weinberger, who Chaim, “It was a Yom Tov in today presides over a kehillah shtub.” of more than 300 families, Harav Shlomo Haberstam, described Reb Dovid’s warmth, the Bobover Rebbe, zt”l, asked but more importantly, his gen- Reb Dovid to come to Boro uineness as the thing that fas- Park to test the talmidim of his cinated his talmidim. yeshivah. “In the world that we grew up in, our heroes were baseball Survival and Tragedy players and celebrities,” Rabbi Harav Lifshitz (seated left) as a 15-year-old bachur in in 1921. Harav Chaim Shmuelevitz is seated in the middle. During his abbreviated stint Weinberger said. “Here we had as Suvalker Rav, Reb Dovid a person who not only taught concerned himself with us Torah on the highest level, strengthening Torah and but there was something great halachah. There was a nearby and heroic about it. He repre- army base with many Jewish sented earlier times.” soldiers and he concerned him- Reb Dovid thrived in taking self with their well-being. He a half-baked sevara or kushya once even made a Pesach seder asked by a talmid and develop- for them before heading home ing it into a well-constructed to his own seder with his fami- idea, then repeating it as if that ly. is what the talmid had meant Reb Dovid’s idyllic existence all along. He would then call as a rising star of Poland’s and the fathers of the talmidim to Lithuania’s Rabbanim, as he tell him that their sons “said began to build his family with such a beautiful sevara.” the birth of a daughter, crashed A most eagerly awaited in 1939 with the German inva- event of the year came on sion. Simchas Torah night, when Entering his home to find dozens of talmidim came to out where the wealthy people Reb Dovid’s house around the of the city were hiding, a Nazi corner from the YU campus to discovered a chalaf — a escort him to the yeshivah for shochet’s knife — on the table. hakafos. Hundreds of necks He seized it, pressed it against craned to watch how Reb Dovid Reb Dovid’s throat and threat- would walk majestically into ened, “Der rabbiner vellen mir the hall, to the thunderous R-L: Harav Eliezer Yehuda Finkel and Harav Chaim Shmuelevitz with Harav Lifshitz (C) speaking at an event in shlachten auf kasher — we will strains of “Baruch Elokeinu Yerushalayim in 1954 during his first trip to Eretz Yisrael. shecht the Rabbi in a kosher She’beraanu Lichvodo,” or a way.” favorite of his, “Tzavei Yeshuos had an unbelievable hadras year-end bechinah, a written explained that during shiur it is Although the incident ended Yaakov.” panim and he carried himself test that took the five dozen possible that someone’s mind peacefully, Reb Dovid realized But what was his initial in a very regal way. I just was bachurim taking it about six would wander. But now during that it was time to escape from attraction for American youths attracted to the appearance of hours to complete. the test, everyone was totally the city with his wife. — many of whom had come to something very authentic. ... I Suddenly they heard Reb absorbed in Torah. Saying that, During that time a tragic YU more for its college pro- was never zocheh to have a Dovid mumbling to himself, his in the middle of the bechinah incident occurred that left a gram — that caused them to grandfather, and there was tone getting louder each time. the boys had worked so hard deep and lasting scar on both of throw away their dreams and something about him that “What a heilige time this is, on, Reb Dovid began singing them. On the way out of Suvalk pursue a full-time career in inspired in me a feeling that ‘if what a heilige time this is,” he “Vetaher libeinu l’avdecha they heard shots being fired, ? I had a zeide, that’s the kind of repeated many times. b’emes.” causing everyone in the vicini- “He was beautiful,” Rabbi zeide I would like to have.’” As the bachurim looked at “He was literally crying,” ty to seek shelter in a nearby Weinberger said simply. “He Rabbi Weinberger recalled a him quizzically, Reb Dovid Rabbi Weinberger said. “We forest. In the tumult, Reb Dovid’s six-month-old daugh- ter Avivit Rashel passed away. It was an event that they never forgot, although they sel- dom discussed it. But they remained forever bound to the memory of Avivit Rashel, a”h, who was named in honor of her maternal grandfather — Avi, “my father” and Rashel, after her grandmother. When Tzippora Chava became ill in 1995 with her final illness, Mrs. Stein asked her sister if she thought she would survive to her birth- day on Chanukah. “You know that Tuesday is Avivit’s yahrtzeit,” her sister replied. Indeed, while Rebbetzin Harav Lifshitz davening at the kever of his shver, Harav Yosef Yoselevitch, dur- Harav Shlomo Zalman Lifshitz, Reb Harav Yosef Yoselevitch, Reb Dovid Lifshitz’s situation turned ing his sole return visit to the city of Suvalk, Poland, in the 1980s. Dovid Lifshitz’s paternal grandfather. Lifshitz’s father-in-law. Community 11 TAMMUZ 5773 JUNE 19, 2013 HAMODIA C11 were all singing ‘Vetaher libeinu.’” Knowing that Rabbi Weinberger enjoyed delving into chassidishe sefarim, Reb Dovid asked him once as they were returning from baking matzos to tell him over a chas- sidishe vort. Rabbi Weinberger recalled telling him something from the Avnei Nezer. “I began to speak,” he said, “and he said, ‘Quick, we have to get off the highway; this is not something to talk about during driving.’” Rabbi Weinberger turned off onto a side street in , where Reb Dovid asked him to repeat the Torah. After listening to it again, he grabbed Rabbi Weinberger’s hand and began singing. “And we sang that niggun over there, on some street in With Harav Aharon Kotler. Manhattan,” he says with a laugh. Rabbi Weinberger admits that he always had a leaning toward Chassidus — his shul is named for the Piacezna Rebbe, Harav Klonimus Kalman Shapiro, Hy”d — and he had been looking for a Rebbe when he found Reb Dovid. “In Yitzchak Elchanan, he was a Rebbe,” Rabbi Weinberger said. “Not by pedi- gree — he was a straight Litvak through and through. But in Harav Lifshitz in the early 1940s. his personality, and the warmth, and the way he saw everything in a very positive way. Those who were looking for a Rebbe in that Litvishe world — we found it in him.” “The fact that he seemed so detached from American cul- ture, and so completely enwrapped in kedushah because of the world that he came from, I found that the most attractive thing. That drew me to him very strongly.” One aspect of that kedushah was Reb Dovid’s insistence on speaking only Yiddish or Lashon Kodesh during learning or at a Shabbos table. In the 1960s, sensitive to the fact that many of their newer An invitation to the vort of Harav Lifshitz and Tzippora Chava Yoselevitch. talmidim were not as well- versed in Yiddish, YU began kallah to wish her mazel tov When greeting someone he urging maggidei shiur to deliv- and ask her about her furniture would grasp the person’s hand er their shiurim in English. purchases. in both of his own, make eye Uncomfortable speaking divrei “It meant the world to her,” contact, always making sure he With Harav Moshe Feinstein. Torah in English, Reb Dovid Rabbi Yudin marvels. was wearing his kapote when developed a perfect Lashon He said that when it came to someone came to his home. His him as a very warm and emo- “The rebbi is still with us,” Kodesh, in the Ashkenazi select a name for his shul, regal bearing was commented tional family man who would one participant summed up havarah, in which he gave his aware that there was a large upon even by their non-Jewish learn with them the feeling that permeated the shiurim. Reform temple in the city, Reb postal deliveryman, who would every Shabbos. hall. “His sincerity overcame the Dovid insisted that the name say, “When Rabbi Lifshitz goes As his daughters left the Others who prided them- generation gap,” Rabbi Yudin include the word “Torah” in it by it’s a prince walking by.” house to begin their own fami- selves to call Reb Dovid their says, “and became a bridge to so that it should be clear where Reb Dovid’s method of lies, Reb Dovid would mention rebbi include Harav Yaakov an American youth so foreign he belonged. (He chose reproof was by emphasizing them on Friday night, “Ich Moshe Kulefsky, zt”l, the cele- to his upbringing.” “Shomrei Torah.”) the positive, rather than focus- bentch der fun veiten — I bless brated Rosh Yeshivah of Ner For Rabbi Yudin, Reb Dovid During the annual tests that ing on the negative. this daughter from afar.” Yisroel in Baltimore, whose was more than a rebbi, he was a Reb Dovid gave, where the “He was the type of person Although 20 years have notes were used to publish one mentor for life. Reb Dovid was talmidim would write answers who, if he were at a chasunah passed since his petirah on 9 of the volumes of Chiddushei his mesader kiddushin, sandak to oral questions the Rosh and there was inappropriate Tammuz, 1993, organizers and Rav Dovid Lifshitz, and, yblc”t, at his eldest son’s bris, and Yeshivah asked, one of the first dancing, he would start a new family members who attended Harav , cur- trained him in for rabbanus. questions he would invariably circle of appropriate dancing,” the multiple yahrtzeit events rent Rosh Yeshivah of Telshe in When he had difficulties dur- ask was, “Did everybody eat?” Rabbi Yudin said. “He did on Sunday and Monday were Chicago. ing his initial years in Fair If not, he would send the things in a positive way by surprised at the hundreds of “I learned in his shiur for Lawn, Reb Dovid was there to bachur out to go eat. being proactive instead of sim- people who turned out to one year,” Harav Keller wrote help. When meeting a former ply protesting.” honor him. Years after they left in an appreciation based on his “During all that time,” Rabbi talmid, the first thing was a Reb Dovid’s three daughters his shiur, the image of the hesped at Reb Dovid’s levayah, Yudin says, “he was there for “Shalom aleichem,” followed in — Mrs. Shulamis Kamenetsky smiling Reb Dovid and his “yet I gained from him a derech me.” rapid succession by “Vu haltstu and Mrs. Chaya Waxman, both warmth remained with his in learning for my whole life, When Rabbi Yudin became a in lernen — how are you learn- of Yerushalayim, and Mrs. Sara talmidim, infusing them with and I remained, as did many, a chassan, Reb Dovid called his ing?” Ittel Stein of Cleveland — recall his enthusiasm for Torah. talmid my entire life.”