No Question as Sweet

In Ponevezh he started learning in-depth and in Chevron he started to rejoice in learning. And in Slabodka he’s been teaching both for decades. When he dances with the Torah it all comes together

Photos: Matis Goldberg Shuki Lehrer

The shiur klali is over, and after the first wave of talmidim leaves the beis medrash, a few young men linger. They wait for a man who might be one of them, if not for the gray beard and slow pace. There is no ceremony as they walk him home, no pageantry surrounding this little group.

There is only the Ketzos and the Terumas Hadeshen and ruba v’chazaka.

A lone yungerman accompanies Rav Dov Landau across Rechov Harav Sher: Rav Akiva Eiger’s kushya is still shver.

Reb Dov stands there for a single moment, shadowed by the dark brown Bnei Brak building, looking so exhausted, yet so fresh. The posture is stooped and the face is lined, but the eyes radiate anticipation and eagerness. He heads up the walk and opens the door that will take him directly into his room, back to his seforim, back to the beloved table at which the yeshivah’s founder, Rav Yitzchak Eizek Sher, sat and learned. There’s a good chance he won’t take off his hat and frock, reluctant to expend the energy and waste the time. The Gemara is calling.