C8 HAMODIA 11 TAMMUZ 5773 JUNE 19, 2013 Community Biography / By Yochonon Donn Hagaon Harav Dovid Lifshitz, zt”l: A Rosh Yeshivah Who Cared for Every Yid In honor of the Suvalker Rav’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 Rabbi 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’ Yeshivas 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 posek 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’Torah 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 Poland close to whose yahrtzeit was marked the border with Lithuania, 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 shiur. 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 yad 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 Shlomo 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 Rishonim and Acharonim that Congregation Aish Kodesh 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 mitzvah. 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 Yiddish, 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 Yeshiva recalled her father saying. “The He took his work with Ezras Bundism or Zionism. 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 Moshe Weinberger, 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 Aharon Kotler. 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 Moshe Feinstein.” 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 Shimon Shkop 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 Gadol 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.