"Anything you are uncomfortable wearing, seeing, or doing at home should not be done on vacation"
I was thrilled to read the wonderful article on Reb Leib Malin ztz”l by Dovi Safier and Yehudah Geberer in your Succos magazine. I would like to point out a grave omission in Part III.
The article states that in the early years, “There were fewer than a dozen American-born talmidim. Beis HaTalmud remained small, unchanging, and elite. But with the arrival of the younger students, Rav Leib instituted a formal system of shiurim. Rav Levi Krupenia, Rav Binyomin Zeilberger, and Rav Gershon Weisenfeld were among the early maggidei shiur.”
Actually, the first maggid shiur chosen by Reb Leib to teach the American boys was my father, Rav Noson Kamenetsky ztz”l. My grandfather, Reb Yaakov, once told Rav Shaya Portnoy shlita that Reb Leib said that he chose my father because “he would know how to give over the mesorah to the American boys.”
It’s possible that Reb Leib felt that my father, who was born in Lita and grew up in a true litvishe, Torahdige household, yet was exposed to America at young age, would know how to relate to the American boys and succeed in correctly conveying the mesoras haTorah from Europe.
Create a free account to keep reading.
