On January 7th, Chazaq and Chickens for Shabbos teamed up to remember the late great Gadol Hador Rav Yehudah Leib Shteinman. The event took place at Rabbi Haimoff’s Ohel Simcha on Main Street; the shul was filled with members from many different communities in Queens.
Reb Robby Neumann of Chickens for Shabbos opened the event with his trademark warmth and sincerity. He said: Great power lies in the mouth. The words which a person chooses to utter has the ability to turn over destinies and fortunes, both physically and spiritually. This power is especially potent in the place where G-d rests his Shekinah. The shul is a sacred place and we must show the proper respect. The whole business of greatness begins with the mouth. The mouth holds keys to death and life. Rabbi Avigdor Miller taught that even negative habits can be stopped by the mouth. For example if a person talks to himself over and over about evils of lashon hara, eventually it will sink in.
The Talmud contrasts the generation of King Achav and King David. Achav went out to war and never lost soldiers, but King David went out to war and lost soldiers. David’s soldiers died because people spoke evil about each other in his generation. Achav the idol worshipper had no such problem amongst his people and therefore lost no soldiers! The same king David said in Tehillim: praiseworthy is the one who never sat with bad company. This is the crowd to avoid, and the opposite leads to all good traits and acquisitions.
Rabbi Aderet spoke next and stirred the crowd with his passionate words of Torah. He said the following: The Mesilat Yesharim teaches us that everything leads to olam haba. Everything is a sign for us in our life, all events are purposeful. A great man who perishes is a sign for our people. Immediatly after Rabbi Shteinman passed, the Jewish nation was struck with the great Azan family tragedy. How can a family be burned by a Chanukah candle!? Yet at around the same time, another occurrence for our people: Mr. Rubashkin is set free. What is G-d’s message to His people?
After the holocaust, Rav Shteinman immediatly aspired to restore yeshivot for the Jewish people. Once, somebody asked him how he could devote all his efforts to opening yeshiva after the destruction of the Holocaust. Rav Shteinman responded that our obligation in this world is to “help” G-d, as it were, to run the world. From the moment the temple was destroyed, a heavenly voice decries the lack of Torah adherence which gives the world its spiritual sustenance. Like Rav Shteinman, a person must know his obligation in this world. Rav Shteinman life was simply about trying to keep the world going.
We owe our life to the Torah. It is our life and our strength. There is no other way the Jewish people exist. Rav Shteinman was the worlds Torah giant. His passing is truly a great tragedy and reminds us that we all have an obligation to the Torah. We all have the duty. G-d told us that we are partners in Creation, our involvement in the Torah is the backbone of existence.
When we witness a tragedy the magnitude of Rav Shteinman passing, we are aware that a fire exists in heaven. The fire exists because of prosecution which takes and consumes. The fire that consumes begins with the purest and burns out. The Azan family was a sacrifice for the Jewish nation. The purest are given the task of waking us up.
The Talmud tells us that the passing of a saint is compared to the destruction of the temple. It is important to note that the tragedy is not the destruction per se; the real tragedy is what causes the fire. Rubashkin was not in jail because of anything he did, but because we needed the message of emunah. He was a Baal emunah who understood that everything is in G-d’s hand. The chariot of G-d is implemented in the world when we are ready to give and live for G-d. The more effort we expend, the more visible G-d’s Chariot becomes.
Rav Shteinman feared no one and lived with the creed that this world is simply a hallway leading to the next world. When a wealthy businessman told him about the loss of $40 Million, Rav Shteinman asked him “did you give $4 million to charity that year?” He was unafraid to remind people what life is all about. How do we honor his life and how can we try to make up for the great loss of such a servant of G-d?
At the age of 12 he was the youngest student in an advanced yeshiva. Some tough students put a toy doll on his bed as sleight to his age, but for months he had not noticed because he would fall asleep and awaken in the Beis Medrash. His dedication was immense.
Noach’s grandfather Methuselah the saint died a week before the Flood. G-d tested if people would mourn properly and thus collect merit to avoid the Flood. G-d takes the righteous before the tragedy to alert the people to the need of repentance. We need to state that we get the message. The message is to serve G-d with his Torah and to give up our little comforts for what is truly important.
When we emulate Rav Shteinman and recognize the illusion of this world and it’s temporary, fleeting pleasures, we can truly be the chariot for G-d in this world. Outlook is everything. A prince may be concerned with the trappings of the kingdom, but his main desire is the propagation of his King’s Honor. Rav Shteinman was such a Prince, concerned exclusively with the manifestation of G-d’s honor in this world. We must ask ourselves every day, how have I this day built a Chariot for G-d?
Rav Shteinman also focused on the prerequisite to being a Chariot for the Divine; peace. Rav Shteinman said over something very telling. There was a Yeshiva around before the Holocaust which housed much strife. Only three boys from that yeshiva survived the war. We need to stay out of all conflict and strife. Strife is the antithesis to G-dliness and is the cause of all kinds of fires.
The lesson to learn from what befell the nation in the past few weeks is that we need to rekindle the Torah in our life. We need to make it our reality and realize that it is the centerpiece of our life; we cannot treat the Torah as a bygone. This world is fleeting, illusory and deceptive. It seems permanent but we all know it is the exact opposite. We need to recalibrate and shift our mindset. Olam haba is the goal, not this world. Rabbi Shteinman’s life and lifestyle was a great testimony to this truth.
A Night of Remembrance and Uplifting
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