Not A Lamb ,When Rabbi Moshe Fhima took a three-day trip to Pinsk in 1995, he was a curious yeshivah bochur with less than a bare-bones knowledge of Russian. Now he’s a driving force in his adopted home, utilizing his gift of gab and indefatigable passion to maneuver his way through bureaucracy and mentalities reminiscent of the previous century. The fruits of his work have blossomed along with his own family, as Rabbi Fhima blends his 24/7 outreach machine with a big heart and lion’s courage.
Staring at the walls is usually a telltale sign of boredom but anyone who gazes at one particular wall in Rabbi Moshe Fhima’s office in the Belarusian city of Pinsk is certain to be captivated.
You might say the wall is Rabbi Fhima’s trophy room with its display of the wedding pictures of more than forty young couples he paired and marched to the chuppah since arriving in Pinsk Belarus ten years ago.
A picture of Rabbi Fhima’s rosh yeshivah Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel shlita graces another section of the wall. If Rabbi Fhima ever gets tired — and that’s a big if because for him a forty-hour week means it’s only Tuesday — he just needs to glance over his shoulder to recall the mesirus nefesh of the famed Mirrer rosh yeshivah who battles debilitating illness on a moment-by-moment basis.
“I don’t know anyone who comes close to the physical difficulties the rosh yeshivah has to overcome” says Rabbi Fhima. “I remember one day when he fell on Malchei Yisrael Street. Instead of returning home to rest he insisted that he be taken directly to yeshivah because he had a shiur to give. His famous motto is ‘You have to do what you have to do.’ ”
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