Just as Moshe Rabeinu’s birthday and Yahrzeit are on the same day, so, too, Rabbi Dahan was decreed to be taken from us on his birthday. One year since his passing
Born and raised in Monsey, New York in the home of his illustrious parents, Rabbi Yitzchak Dahan shlita and yb’l Rebbetzin Ruthy Dahan a’h, Rabbi Dahan spent twenty years in Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland (eleven years as bochur and 9 more in the kollel, when he also taught the 9th grade) becoming a talmid muvhak of Rav Mordechai Gifter and Rav Chaim Stein zt’l. Even when he moved to Brooklyn, he remained a lifelong Telzer returning to Telz year after year for summer vacation with his family. At the urging of his Rebbe, he delved deeper into his Morrocan mesorah, until he became a noted expert in the field and a leading Torah figure in the Syrian community of Brooklyn, NY. Using the traditional Morrocan pronunciations and nigunim, with reverence and dedication to Rabbi Shlomo Lankry, Reb Chaim was a baal tefilla at the Morrocan shul, Chesed L’Avraham for more than two decades. A pre1A and first grade Rebbi at Yeshivat Shaare Torah, and a popular lecturer with hundreds of shiurim on Torah Anytime, he is missed by young and old alike across the Jewish spectrum.
How can one person fulfill all the mitzvot? Some mitzvot only a Kohen can perform, others only a nazir, etc. So, how can any one person ever achieve shleimut, if so many mitzvot are always out of his reach? The answer, Rabbi Dahan, used to say, is through ‘veahavta l’reiecha kamocha.‘ Klal Yisrael is really one entity and if we are connected to other Jews fulfilling the other mitzvot, we fulfill all the mitzvot in the Torah.
Just as Moshe Rabeinu’s birthday and Yahrzeit are on the same day, so, too, Rabbi Dahan was decreed to be taken from us on his birthday. Chazal teach that on the day we are born, we are entrusted with a mission. The righteous person “completes the number of his days‘ ‘ achieving his fullest potential, accomplishing his unique mission on earth in the most perfect way possible. This completion is expressed in the fact that his mission ends on the very same day that it was begun. Perhaps that is why Rabbi Dahan himself was taken from us on his birthday, Vav Nisan. Rav Dahan’s 54 years of loving his fellow Jew connected him to all of Klal Yisrael.
Rabbi Dahan had an uncanny ability to look at a person and see exactly what they needed. He cared so deeply, he did whatever he could to fill that need.
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