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C54 HAMODIA 6 TEVES 5773 DECEMBER 19, 2012 Tribute Because It Hurts: Still Crying for Harav Mendel Weinbach, zt”l BY MORDECHAI SCHILLER He didn’t stop while running the post offices used to sell. He filled discussions. the back cover of the magazine. bases to check his standing on every flap of the letter with One day, Harav Nachman I came up with the headline How do you measure the the scoreboard. advice, encouragement, and Bulman, zt”l, walked in, chuck- “Recycle Your Mind!” Reb impact of one person? always with questions — specific ling even more than he usually Mendel read it and shook his And what if that person is a More Than a Partner questions about what I was did. With perfect timing, he head. “You can’t say that!” husband, a father, a grandfather, Maybe the real measure of a doing and how I was doing. waited until his mischievous “Why not?” a neighbor, a friend... and also leader is how he inspires other The letters only stopped smile nailed everyone’s atten- “Essentially, you’re telling happened to be an eminent leaders. when I got married and moved tion. Then he said, “We think people their mind is garbage.” author and Rosh Yeshivah? My brother, ybl”c, Harav Nota back to Eretz Yisrael, and we these boys are not so sophisticat- I saw his point, but still liked Do you keep a running total of Schiller, learned in Yeshiva spoke regularly. After a short ed because they never learned in the concept, so I conducted an talmidim? Like the incessantly Rabbi Chaim Berlin and later time in a kollel, I was hired by the yeshivah, but let me tell you informal focus group. I went ticking World Population Clock? went to Ner Israel Yeshivah in budding Yeshivas Ohr Somayach something... I just spoke with a around the yeshivah and asked And let’s not forget to factor Baltimore, where he became a to run their office. The bachurim boy who is here for three weeks. guys what they thought of the in how many of those talmidim close talmid of Harav Yaakov were learning in the beis And he told me this observation: headline. Everyone liked it. No now have talmidim of their own. Weinberg, zt”l. Harav Weinberg medrash of Yeshivah Bais Yoseph “‘From what I can see,’ the one was offended. Recycling had And that’s not even counting the had also learned in Chaim Novardok on Shmuel Hanavi boy said, ‘if you want to under- become cool. families — and extended families Berlin. Once, my brother asked Street in Yerushalayim. The stand something, you go to Reb Mendel withdrew his — of those talmidim and their Harav Weinberg what he had building had no available room Rabbi Bulman. If you want an opposition. talmidim. gotten from Harav Hutner, zt”l. for an office, so Reb Mendel eitzah, you go to Rabbi [Nota] That was before my direct And what do you do with the The answer came as a shock. arranged to share the P’eylim Schiller [ybl”c]. And if you want marketing days, so I never meas- unknown quantity and quality of ured the results of that cam- those talmidim getting their first paign, but I can tell you I am still introduction to Torah by that close friends with three fellows Rosh Yeshivah and his col- who came to Ohr Somayach leagues? through Shma Yisrael magazine, I’ll leave the quantum and one of them came precisely mechanics of talmidim to others. in response to that ad. He told You can’t paint a picture of me that when he saw it, he said, Harav Mendel Weinbach by the “Yeah, that’s what I have to do. I numbers. have to recycle my mind!” Years later, Reb Mendel got The Kavod Conundrum the last word on a marketing Reb Mendel was indifferent question. I was working as an to kavod. He embodied the atti- independent consultant and he tude to kavod of the Kotzker asked me to come to the yeshiv- Rebbe, zt”l. A chassid once asked ah to discuss a PR (public rela- the Kotzker why we say that if tions) campaign. I started telling someone runs away from kavod, him, “You need a road show...” the kavod chases after him and He stopped me and said, “I he gets honored. That makes it love these PR guys. You bring sound like the honor is a reward them in to promote your prod- for his humility. But what if uct, and they tell you you need a someone really doesn’t want new product!” kavod? What if he hates kavod? Then he leaned in to my face Why should the kavod chase and said, “Listen, Mordechai. after him and catch him? He This is a yeshivah! Get it?” would feel like that was a pun- Harav Weinbach addressing the Ohr Somayach Mentors Mission. I got it. ishment! The Kotzker said, “If some- “I got everything from him.” office in the Geula section, a to get something done, you go to Three Menachems one hates kavod and runs away “How is that possible? If you short walk away. Rabbi Weinbach...’” Reb Mendel wrote several from it, that tells me the kavod got everything from Harav Reb Mendel walked into the As oversimplifications go, columns for the Jewish Press, means something to him. The Hutner, how can it be that I office as I was setting up, shook there was a lot to this one. most under his own name, but he right attitude to kavod should be never heard you quote him?” his head and went looking for a Reb Mendel was always on was also the ghostwriter for that it’s irrelevant. Getting hon- “I don’t need to quote him. “sponja” squeegee stick and rag the move. Once he confided to columns by two other ored, or getting slapped in the Every time I give a shiur; every (the Israeli version of a mop, me, “I can tell I’m getting old... I Menachems: Rabbi Menachem face, should all be the same. Both time I speak with a talmid... I specially designed for washing can still tell — from the sound of Porush and Prime Minister should leave no impression.” measure my words by one thing: stone floors). Seconds later, he the way the ball hits the bat — Menachem Begin. Harav Yitzchak Hutner, zt”l, What would Harav Hutner was mopping the floor. I tried to which way the ball is going to go. After Begin was elected Prime once quipped about a great think? He shapes everything I grab the stick from him, but he But my legs don’t take me there Minister, he was scheduled to scholar, “He will never become a do.” was too wiry and fast for me. anymore.” visit Washington and meet with talmid chacham... because he’s Trying to encapsulate four “Reb Mendel, please... let me President Carter. There was one too busy learning.” decades of partnership — work- do that!” Anything Worth Doing... problem: The meeting was While Harav Hutner was talk- ing hand in hand as Roshei “Get out of here! I have eight The preeminent pragmatist, scheduled for the Nine Days — ing about the need to stop and Yeshivah with Reb Mendel — my kids. You think I can’t do this Reb Mendel had no patience for the mourning period before digest one’s learning, the image brother, ybl”c, told me, “We were better than you can?” perfectionists. Years before Nike Tishah B’Av, when we are told to somehow reminded me of Reb more than partners or friends. At that time, my wife was sneakers would proclaim “Just avoid court cases with non-Jews Mendel’s constant state of For 41 years, we shared every- expecting our first child. When Do It!” Reb Mendel threw this because of the bad mazel of those motion. He lived by Harav thing. Even when we weren’t my daughter was born, I called enigmatic epigram at me: days. Yitzchak of Vorka’s interpreta- together, every success I had, I Reb Mendel to give him the “Anything worth doing is Begin asked Rabbi Porush to tion of the passuk: “Eretz ocheles thought about how Reb Mendel news. He was delighted and worth doing lousy!” ask Harav Shach whether this yoshveha — a land that consumes would have nachas; every frus- wished me mazel tov. Then he This was too much. Even for a warning about the Nine Days its inhabitants.” It means that tration I had, I thought about added, in a dark, ominous tone devoted devotee. applied to his having an official Eretz Yisrael “eats up” people how Reb Mendel and I would that seemed to clash with his “What does that mean? That meeting with the U.S. President. who are stuck in one place and find the humor in it, and be able habitual impish smile: doesn’t make sense. How can it Harav Shach answered that the don’t grow. to laugh at it together. “When the crunch comes... possibly be worthwhile to do warning about the mazel of the Reb Mendel may be recog- Everything I did was by the light we’re going to need numbers!” something lousy?” But I was no Nine Days only applies to an nized as a Gadol, but whether he of Reb Mendel.” Mopping the floor was vin- match for the master. individual, not the community, was or wasn’t recognized, the tage Reb Mendel. His modus “If you wait to do something and he said that Begin should go.