Until his petirah last week, Rav Dov Yaffe ztz”l offered a piercing understanding of our inner struggles, and for those who wished, a recipe for happiness,
(Photos: Lior Mizrachi Aharon Baruch Leibowitz Menachem Kalish)
I f you thought baalei mussar are supposed to be stoic and demanding you probably never met Rav Dov Yaffe ztz”l the elder mashgiach of Kfar Chassidim whose disarming calm and warm smile were available for anyone who sought what he had to give. Until his petirah last week he offered a piercing understanding of our inner struggles and for those who wished a recipe for happiness.
“Do you learn mussar?”
The Mashgiach Rav Dov Yaffe looked at me lovingly as he waited calmly for an answer as though there weren’t dozens of people in line behind me waiting to wish him gut Shabbos.
I was just a young bochur newly minted in yeshivah ketanah having gone to Yeshivas Knesses Chizkiyahu in Rechasim for Shabbos in order to meet the Mashgiach — and now I couldn’t utter a word. Suddenly I found my hand clasped tightly in his while his kind warm compassionate eyes looked straight into my heart and never left.
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