In my teenage years I had absolutely no appreciation of the greatness of the Torah giant with whom I interacted daily
Talmid Chacham, rav, rosh yeshivah, rebbi, and yerei shamayim are the primary appellations of Harav Dov Berel ben Harav Zev ztz”l, hareini kapparas mishkavo. Forty-seven years ago I had the great fortune to walk through the doors of Yeshiva Shaarei Torah in Monsey. I was in the yeshivah for high school, beis medrash, and the semichah program and maintained my connection with Rebbi until today. I’m not sure I can say that these 40-plus years of connection and learning were enough to really understand his teaching, but I can definitively state that in my teenage years I had absolutely no appreciation of the greatness of the Torah giant with whom I interacted daily.
Rebbi presented a weekly shiur klali on the sugya that we were studying. Those of us who entered the semichah program were treated to shiurim on Yoreh Dei’ah twice weekly, in which the world of halachah and rabbanus was opened up to us. My final draft of the ten semichah bechinos consisted of 657 handwritten, single-spaced pages, and Rebbi read every word, complete with check marks, comments, spelling, and grammar corrections.
Rebbi would teach mussar for a few minutes every day after davening, rotating on a yearly basis between the four classic seforim: Mesillas Yesharim, Shaarei Teshuvah, Orchos Tzaddikim, and Chovos Halevavos. Rebbi, of course, taught them with his unique perspective and insight, the core message being that we were responsible to uphold the legacy of the Am Hanivchar and be a Mamleches Kohanim, and that the ideals of Jewish life were ancient and time-tested, as applicable and important in the 20th century as in earlier generations, while all other ideas and philosophies have been discarded in the trash bin of human history.
Rebbi’s Jewish history classes were the fulfillment of the instructions of Moshe Rabbeinu in parshas Ha’azinu (a parshah that held a special place in Rebbi’s educational approach, together with the lessons of the Neviim). Rebbi trained us to see world events, through the ages and today, as the backdrop to Am Yisrael.
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