Audio: Rav Avrohom Chaim Levin Speaks On Yahrtzeit of His Father, Rav Leizer Levin zt”l

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rav-avrohom-chaim-levin-1[Audio below.] Last Tuesday, Rav Avrohom Chaim Levin, rosh yeshiva of Telshe Yeshiva in Chicago, made a siyum and spoke in honor of the 18th yahrtzeit of his father, the venerated rov of Detroit, Rav Leizer Levin zt”l. Rav Leizer, a talmid of the Chofetz Chaim in Radin, learned as well for seven years in Kelm under Rav Doniel Movoshovitz. In 1938, Rav Levin came to Detroit.

Rav Avrohom Chaim, a member of the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah of Agudas Yisroel and Rav Leizer’s only son, shared divrei zikaron about his father and spoke about the significance of the 18th yahrtzeit.

Click below to listen to Rav Levin’s remarks:

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In honor of the yahrtzeit, it is worthwhile to share the following story, retold by Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky, a grandson of Rav Leizer Levin:

In 1987, Rabbi Yosef Karmel, currently National Director of Peylim/Lev L’Achim, was Director of Camp Agudah of the Midwest, in South Haven Michigan. One weekend he invited two prominent guests to the camp; Rabbi Eliezer Levin, one of America’s oldest and most revered rabbis, a student of the Chofetz Chaim, and the Rav of Detroit for nearly fifty years and his son, Rabbi Avraham Chaim Levin, dean and founder of the Telshe Yeshiva of Chicago, a member of the council of Torah Sages, of Agudath Israel, and one of the outstanding and dynamic leaders of American Orthodoxy. It was a rare and extraordinary occasion for the campers, and the atmosphere was spiritually charged. Guests arrived in South Haven to bask in the glow of two generations of Torah giants.

After the Shabbos services, Rabbi Karmel announced that while the campers would attend their regularly scheduled learning classes, Rabbi Avraham Chaim Levin would teach the Daf HaYomi, the daily-apportioned Talmudic folio, studied concurrently by Jews the world over, to the lay guests who had come to vacation that weekend together with the camp and the distinguished visitors.

As everyone dispersed from shul Rabbi Karmel felt a soft tap on his arm. “Where,” the elderly Rav of Detroit asked, “is the Daf Hayomi shiur taking place?” Rabbi Karmel understood that Rav Levin, ever the rabbinic gentleman, had somehow figured it to be improper for him not to attend the class along with all the other guests. In his humility, conjectured Rabbi Karmel, this scholar – who most certainly could spend the time studying Torah on his own lofty level, was about to sacrifice an hour sitting at a class geared lay people, all in the name of good manners.”

Reassuringly the camp director told the elderly Rav Levin, “There is no need for you to attend this shiur. It is intended for the Ba’ale Batim (lay people) and no one expects the Rav to attend.”

The elderly Rav looked at Rabbi Karmel with incredulity and uttered words, which Rabbi Karmel told me, he will never forget: “What? Do you think I would miss the chance to hear my son teach a blatt of Gemarah?”

(Rabbi Karmel added afterwards: “At the time of this story Rav Avrohom Chaim, soon to become a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of America, had already served as a Rosh Yeshiva for more than thirty years. The shiur he was to say was not a singular event but rather an example of what he has done so well for many decades. There certainly was no question as to his ability to deliver a brilliant shiur. Yet, to his father it represented an opportunity to be amongst the listeners; a tangible nachas that was more real than all the fame his son had so deservedly accumulated.)

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2 COMMENTS

  1. “a tangible nachas that was more real than all the fame his son had so deservedly accumulated”

    i dont get why nachas and spirtial pleasure is a valid form of avodas hashem – the rambam lists it as the lowest form of avodas hahsme

    how come so many gedolim stories, where we wish to show their greatness have it as a major part

    someone please explain

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