16 Mar TAMID B’SIMCHA- THE SECRET TO HAPPINESS & EMUNAH: EXCLUSIVE Q & A WITH THE MORAH D’ASRA OF AGUDATH ISRAEL BAIS BINYOMIN IN BROOKLYN RAV MOSHE TUVIA LIEFF SHLITA

Rav Moshe Tuvia Lieff Shlita, the Morah D’Asra of Agudath Israel Bais Binyomin in Brooklyn, New York, is a respected Talmid Chochom and a warm and dynamic individual, loved by his mispalelim. Rav Lieff replaced Rav Pinchos Breuer Shlita, who moved to Eretz Yisroel twelve years ago. Rav Lieff has been a sought-after guest speaker at hundreds of events across the United States and abroad.

Before obtaining his current position, Rav Lieff was the Rov of Kehillas Bais Yisroel in Minneapolis. The Rov was instrumental in creating the Minneapolis Community Kollel. He was a true inspiration for the entire region in general and his community in particular. He is credited with helping to transform Minneapolis into the thriving Torah center it has become today.

Rav Lieff attended Yeshivas Kol Torah in Yerushalayim, where he studied under the Posek Hador, Hagon Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l, and received Semicha Yoreh Yoreh, Yadin Yadin & was a close Talmid of Maran Hagaon Rav Shmuel Berenbaum, zt”l, Rosh Yeshivas Mirrer Yeshiva in New York.

Agudas Yisroel Bais Binyomin was founded over 32 years ago by a few Baal HaBatim and has grown into a Kehilla of well over 200 families k”y. The first Morah D’asra was HaRav Yitzchak Hacohen Isbee zt”l who led the Kehilla for approximately 10 years until his untimely petira in 1997.

How is the Rav feeling? It’s well known that the Rav had Corona at one point and was not well. Are you feeling back to your old self?

Bechasdei Hashem, I feel fantastic and I’m giving all the shiurim I was giving before. I have a special Hakaros Hatov to Klal Yisroel. Rabbonim, Gedolim, Roshei Yeshivos, my kehilla at the Agudah and my kehilla in Minneapolis all davened for me and I feel that I’m alive because they davened for me. I met Rav Yaakov Bender, the Rosh Yeshiva of Darchei Torah, a couple months ago and he said Moishe Tuvia, I davened for you. I said, “Why do you think I’m alive?!”

The night of Kol Nidrei I was in the hospital and Rav Yisroel Reisman, with whom I’m very close, led his Kehilla in tearful tehillim. He was crying that I should be ok. Rav Yisroel Meir Landau of Veretzky spoke at Neila about me. When Hashem gives your life back, you have to do good things and give back. I have tremendous hakaros hatov to the gedolim and tzadikim in Eretz Yisroel and America and for all the yidden who davened for me. I compare it to Neil Armstrong. When Neil Armstrong flew to the moon, he was physically alone, but there were one billion people with him. That’s what I felt on Yom Kippur in my hospital room; Klal Yisroel was with me.

What does the Rav feel is the message that Klal Yisroel should take from Corona?

We need Achdus. We need to care about each other. We need to show Hakaras Hatov to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. We have to realize that every day of our life is precious and we have much to accomplish. We have to be mekarev people, learn Torah, take care of our children, and look at everyone with a favorable eye.

We need an Adam Gadol like the Gadol Hador Rav Chaim Kanievsky to tell us what the true message is. Corona is a terrible disease spread by microscopic organisms. Isn’t that Loshon Hora? Isn’t that insidious behavior? Isn’t that an unfiltered internet? It creeps in, under the door, and then explodes. It’s the same deal.

From my perspective, there’s a two-fold message. Number one is the process of how the infection began. People were infected by a vapor, and that’s loshon hora. We don’t realize how we pollute the environment when we speak Loshon Hora. When a person speaks loshon hora it changes and corrupts the world.

The second thing we need to learn is that we are all survivors. The media, even the Jewish media, use the terminology “a victim of Corona.” How can we describe the petirah of a yid or anyone else as a “victim” of Corona? The Rebono Shel Olam has pin-point accuracy. He wanted the Novominsker Rebbe zt”l. He wanted to spare other people. He wanted to take certain people and he spared other people. We don’t know why.

When I first came here many years ago during Hurricane Sandy, I heard on the radio that Hurricane Sandy stormed up from the Atlantic Ocean and blew all the way up Ocean Parkway up to Ave Y.

Really?

Hurricane Sandy is a G-d? It’s “Ruach Seara- Oseh Devaro”. The Rebono Shel Olam decided that Manhattan Beach should be decimated and Flatbush should be spared. We have to realize that it’s all from HaKadosh Boruch Hu. He gave us life and He can take it away. He knows that we’re very concerned, whether we’re not getting ill or we’re getting ill and will recover. We have an achrayus to do better! Look at how the shuls shut down! In our Kehilla, we now have a policy that phones are not allowed in shul and we’re really trying to not talk during davening, even bein gavra l’gavra.

I think the takeaway is that we have to be better.

Over the past year many people are feeling down. People lost loved ones, people lost family members, and people have issues with parnassah. What would the Rav say is the secret to happiness and emunah?

We didn’t only lose loved ones; we couldn’t even go to a levaya. One thing I learned from Covid is that Klal Yisroel has unbelievable Emunas Chachamim. Daas Torah was strengthened. Klal Yisroel was calling and asking all different shailos: Can I go to my mother in law’s lavaya?, Can I go to a backyard minyan because if I don’t, I can’t say kaddish? That was the greatest Kiddush Hashem.

Simchas hachayim comes from within.

Rav Pam zt’l said “Simcha is a city in the state of your mind.” When you wake up in the morning, you can be positive or negative. It’s up to you. Life is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you. It’s mind over matter. Conjure visions of people that are having problems and appreciate what you have. The chinuch says “Adam Nifal Kfi Peulasov Chitzoneius Meorer Hapninis,”man is affected by his actions. Your heart is drawn to actions. Someone who doesn’t give tzedakah and puts $100 into tzedakah for 30 days, will become a philanthropist. You have to smile to be happy. You have a sore throat, you have a stomach ache, you have a headache, come to shul and be happy and other people will be happy.

There was a survey years ago where a certain gentleman said good morning to hundreds of people. People’s lives were changed because of one good morning. When you make other people happy, you’ll be happy.

There’s a Moradika Gemara in Taanis 22a. Rav Beroka asked Eliyahu Hanavi, who in this market place is a living ben olam haba? He replied “Hani”, those two. Rav Beroka asked them what did they do for a living and they replied we are comedians. When we see people who are depressed we cheer them up. The insight is, if a person is depressed he’s not a mentsch. He doesn’t feel like a human being. When you cheer him up your restoring his menshlichkit and he becomes a ben adam. “Smaichim Umesachem Bnai Adam”. What is the chidush that they are mesameach people? Who else can they be mesameach to create a comedy pet club?

If a person is depressed, you should feel down and want to do something about it. Hakadosh Baruch Hu says “If your arm hurts, my arm hurts, If your head hurts, my head hurts.” Marsha elucidates when a Jew is depressed & down, the Ribbono Shel Olam is depressed & down. When you cheer up another Yid, you’re cheering up Hashem. How can you not be besimacha? There are so many opportunities to help people!

They asked three great gaonim in Lita “What’s the tachlis of a Rav?” One said, to pasken shailos. Another said, to say shiurim. Rav Chaim Brisker said “Pasken shailos?” We have dayanim! Say shiurim? We have darshanim. The tachlis of a Rav is to help people. To make people feel better. To bring them up. Brisk was engulfed in a fire and half of it was burnt to the ground. Rav Chaim Brisker rebuilt it; Rav Chaim was b’simcha. Every abandoned child ended up on his doorstep. So how could you not be b’simcha when you can help other people? That’s what yiddeshkeit is all about! If you can make other people happy, you’ll be happy!

How does Klal Yisrael deal with the loss of so much Daas Torah this past year?

First of all we have the klal “Yiftach B’doro-Kishmuel B’doro” -When one person leaves the world, another person enters the world. The Gemara says. You can’t say “I used to go to the Agudah Convention when Rav Moshe was there or when Rav Yaakov was there. Now we don’t have anyone anymore.” The Rebono Shel Olam prepares us. He prepares the Rabbonim and Gedolim. Of course, we mourn the loss of these Tzadikim and Gedolim. We can learn from their maisim tovim, their Torah, their midos. There are a lot of great rabbonim in Flatbush. and a lot of great Roshei Yeshivos and talmidei chachamim in the world. Hashem is going to take care of us. The gadol, the Tzadik, is a medium and increases our love for Hashem. Nobody feels this more than the rabbanim. I consulted Rav Dovid Feinstein in matters of pikuach nefesh. When he was niftar, I was talking to a friend of mine and I kept saying “What am I going to do? What am I going to do?” I felt I didn’t have anyone to talk to about this matter. There was a case of a 27 year old young man who was on the brink of death and the shaila was whether or not a DNR should be issued. Do you break his ribs to keep him alive? I asked myself, “What would Rav Dovid do? Rav Dovid would’ve said to let him go and so that was the psak. I felt confident in my answer because it was Rav Dovid guiding me. Rav Dovid was the posek hador. So it’s especially hard for the Rabbonim. But you have to step up to the plate and do what you need to do.

Two weeks ago was the 26th yahrtzeit of Hagaon Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l. I believe that the Rav attended Yeshivas Kol Torah in Yerushalayim, where you studied under the Posek Hador. Is there a quick story that you can share about Rav Shlomo Zalman zt’l?

I learned under Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and he was unbelievable! When I was a teenager I went to Kol Torah. He gave a shiur Klali. I approached Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach to ask him a shaila. We were learning Mesechta Makos which I loved. I went to the Rav’s office and I asked him my sheilah; he was very nice to me. Somehow it came up that Rav Yitzchok Shlomo Blau was my great grandfather. He said “Ah! Rav Yitzchok Shlomo’s a anikel.” I replied as a naive American, I’m not his anikel, I’m his ur anikel, his great grandson. He smiled at me and Chasdei Hashem, I developed a strong kesher with him.

I remember when I used to ask him shailos on pikuach nefesh. Many years ago we had a chasuna in Minneapolis and I flew my family out to Yerushalayim. I brought my daughter, my son, and my wife. My daughter was learning in a day school, Torah Academy, in first grade. She saw Rav Shlomo Zalman and said “Shalom.” I was slightly embarrassed that my daughter was talking to the Gadol Hador like a modern kid saying “Shalom”. She could have said “Shalom Aleichem”. He replied “Oh! Shalom, Shalom!” He was so excited that she spoke Hebrew!

I remember I told him, “The Rosh Yeshiva remembers me from Kol Torah. There are two reasons you remember a bochur: either he’s metzuyan, or a zulik. What was I?” He said “Chas veshalom! You can’t talk that way!”

I asked him numerous sheilos about contemporary things that have not yet made there way to Yerushalayim. Is one allowed to insert a straw in a drink box on Shabbos. He never saw a drink box. I pulled one out of my raincoat. He said ya ya ya.

I asked about shoveling snow on Shabbos in Minneapolis within a eruv and he showed me in his sefer that it was allowed.

This was the kicker.

We flew TWA to Eretz Yisrael, that’s how long ago it was. I and somebody else with our families wanted to stay longer. We loved it. The airline wouldn’t budge. There was a travel agent in Tel Aviv that for $300 would extend our tickets. I asked Rav Shlomo Zalman if I could do it. He said, “It could be that it’s permitted in halacha ,but you, my talmid, you don’t do falshkeit. The Gadol Hador just paskened “Lieff doesn’t do falshkeit.” The word travelled across Minneapolis we don’t travel falshkeit. We don’t travel in the wrong direction on someone elses ticket. It was pre-9/11 and you don’t fly under someone elses name. Two weeks later it dawned on me that he gave me musar! He was telling me that as a Rav how could I do falshkeit? But that’s not what he said! He said according to halacha is would be mutar, but it’s falshkeit and I know you don’t do falshkeit. Some people wake up in the morning and say, “Hashem, please give me the opportunity to fulfill the mitzvah of tochacha. Let a fellow not wear his tefillin straight and I will have to straighten him out!” Hocheach Tocheach- it’s open season on everyone! It’s a mitzvah de’oraysa.

The Torah obligates that we give tochacha to everyone. One of the 613 mitzvos is to give tochacha. Shlomo Hamelech says in Mishleh “Don’t give tochcha to a scoffer for he will come to hate you. Only give tochcha to a Tzadik, he will come to love you.” How does Shlomo Hamelech qualify the words of the Torah? I believe it’s in the approach. It’s how you do it. Shlomo Hamelech says do not admonish him as a scoffer- “you never do anything right.” With that approach he will despise you. Admonish him as a chacham. “This is not you.” He will come to love you. That’s what my rebbie did for me.

Aharon Hakohen, loved people so much, that people considered themselves his friend. They would say “How can I do an aveira if Aharon Hakohen is my friend, and I’m his friend?” The Misheli says “Al Tochach- Leitz Pen-Yisnacha-Hochach- Lechacham Veyehovecha”.

We need to learn from my revered Rebbie Morah Hagaon Rav Shlomo Zalman zt”l how to admonish and correct people. We have to uplift them.

What is the first thing you think of when you think of some of the gedolim, the Daas Torah, that we lost this past year?

The tachlis is to bring the past onto the current. Any transmission of Torah, Mesora, and Middos Tovos is important for the next dor. So very often, the Rabbonim and Rebbeim are linked to the previous dor. I had a fellow that became Shomer Torah Umitzvos that was enamored with Rav Shlomo Zalman. I gave him a book to read about Rav Shlomo Zalman. The next week he came back and said, (pointing to the book), let me get this straight, you learned from him, I learn from you, so really I’m learning from him. I said bingo you got it Marc. In other words by him learning from me, it’s as if he was learning from Rav Shlomo Zalman.

Let’s talk about some of the Daas Torah we lost this past year.

THE NOVOMINSKER REBBIE ZT”L

He was an unbelievable Talmid Chacham. A few days before he was niftar, he had been consulting with a yeshiva in Minneapolis to give them eitsos on what to do. He went to Minneapolis, he went to simchos; he was a very warm individual. I once had a difficult issue with a family that was having financial issues. He sat with them and tried to work it out. Both he & his Rebbetzin were very caring people. He didn’t like to kiss people, but one time I came to honor him at some kind of dinner and he said “Rabbi Lieff, I have to give you a kiss.” He was a real Rebbie, he was a heilige mentsch, but he was in tune with the world, and he grew up in this world. My mechutin was a talmid of his and gave him shaloch manos in Boro Park. He was multifaceted and he connected to everyone. He saw the gadlus in everybody. He was the premier Agudist, he knew what Agudah was all about.

HARAV DOVID SOLOVEITCHIK ZT”L

A week after Succos, Rav Dovid still held on to his lulav and looked at it and felt it. It was so chashuv that even after the yom tov, he loved it so much.

There was a maaseh where a a bachur in Minneapolis wanted to go to Brisk from Kol Torah. I really didn’t have shaychis to Rav Dovid at the time. Rav Dovid’s nephew told me that it wasn’t a problem. He said I should make an appointment with him and it’ll work out. I come in at 10:15 in the morning. He looked at me, I looked at him, and I knew it wasn’t happening. All of a sudden Rav Gershon Shtemer of the Eidah Chareidus, the Badatz of Yerushalayim came in and said, “Reb Moshe Tuvia, I went to the apartment that you told me you’re staying at. I walked from the basement to the top and couldn’t find that apartment. It was hidden somewhere. So I want you to know you’re patur. I used to go visit him, and he came to visit me, and he said you’re patur and you can go back to America. You told me you’d be at Rav Dovid at 10:15 so here I am. Rav Dovid walks to the door, Rav Dovid walks through the door. He walks down the steps, Rav Dovid walks down the steps, he walks in the street, Rav Dovid accompanies him in the street. Rav Dovid comes out and picks up the legendary list of talmidim and says “What’s the bochur’s name?” He told him his name was Noam. He said “Noam? Vus far a nomin is Noam?” It sounded like some modern kid. I told him he was a Yeshivisha bochur. Then Rav Dovid asked me if I came often to Eretz Yisroel. I told him that I do, but I didn’t chap that he was telling me that any time I came I could talk to him and spend time together so that we can get to know each other. Unfortunately I didn’t pick up on it & I really never continued our relationship. I got up to leave, he got up to leave. I walked to the door, he walked to the door. I went down the stairs, he went down the stairs. I walked down the street, he walked down the street.

A funny maise is told about Rav Dovid. Somebody came to him and told him that a certain Rav would listen to Parshas Zachor seven times. Rav Dovid said “Meshugane! Two or three times is enough!”

Another story. A chassidishe rebbe comes to Rav Dovid and says we’re both gedolim. Let’s make a gezara that the pandemic should be over & it will be over. Reb Dovid listened to what the man said three or four times. Rav Dovid said you are a rebbe & you can do such a thing. I’m a litvak & we don’t know how to do gezaros!

RAV DOVID FEINSTEIN ZT”L

He was the Gaon HaDor. Rav Elyashiv held him as the posek of America, yet he was so self-effacing. When he went to a simcha everyone felt it was an issur baal tashchis if you didn’t go over and ask him something. He was once at a simcha and everyone was peppering him with questions. The fellow next to him opened up a seltzer bottle, and it went like a geyser shooting up in the air and came down on Rav Dovid’s hat, sloshing him in rivers of seltzer. Rav Dovid continued talking, shook off the seltzer, and never looked to the right to see who did it. Anyone else would’ve been startled of the deluge and would have turned to see who the perpetrator was and would have said ”Don’t worry about it. It’s all good.” Rav Dovid was so controlled, he didn’t even turn to see where deluge came from.

I remember there was an issue at the shul and some members wanted a heimish minhag that to me seemed to contradict the concept of “Berov Am Hadrach Melech”. Rav Dovid said to me, “Moshe Tuvia you want to go to war with them? You don’t go to war over this!”

I was once at a pidyon haben and Rav Dovid came to me. Rav Dovid said that you don’t say tachanun if the pidyon haben will take place immediately after mincha. I could have pulled out several seforim and showed seven rayas that everybody holds that you say tachnun by mincha at a pidyon haben. In fact there was a talmid from Tiferes Yerushalayim there that kept on arguing with Rav Dovid that of course you say tachanun, I thought to myself that when the Ran says “libi omer kein” nobody can be cholek because “libi omer kein” is the whole gamut of Torah. Shas Bavili & Yerushalmi, Sifri & Sifra. When Rav Dovid said that you don’t say tachanun at a pidyon haaben, it was “libi omer kein”. I changed my psak and I don’t say tachanun by mincha anymore at a pidyon haben. 

RABBI YEHUDA KELEMER ZT’L

He was unbelievable. I didn’t know him very well, but he was a gaon; he was Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz’s chavrusa. He came to Telz from another yeshiva. He was once talking to Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Isbee, who was then a bochur. He told him that he was afraid that this place was too intense. He didn’t think it was for him. They were standing at the greenhouse watching the bochrim play baseball.

Many years before the height of World War 2, Charban Europa, Rav Mottel Katz & Rav Elya Meir Bleich started Telz with five bochrim. One day, Erev Shabbos the bochrim snuck out & went to the movies. That Sunday, the Rosh Yeshiva came to yeshiva and threw his keys on the table. He said, “We started Telz Yeshiva and now were closing Telz Yeshiva”. “This is not Telz Yeshiva of America, this is Tezl Europe transplanted to America.They answered, “Rebbe, what should we do? We’re bored on Friday afternoon!” He asked them what they wanted him to do and they said they wanted to play football. The next day he tossed them a football and now in Telz Yeshiva, everybody plays ball on Fridays after the first seder. We used to play tennis, basketball, and baseball. Rav Gifter would walk by the ball field and say, “Hit it out of the park.” or “If you’re going to do it, do it right!”

Yehuda & Avraham Mordechai were watching the game. A tall, handsome, lanky fellow hit the ball and stretched a triple into a homerun and slid into home plate. Avraham Mordechai turned to Yehuda and said, “See that boy? He’s the best bochur in the yeshiva.” Rav Kelmer said, “Wow! If he’s the best bochur in the yeshiva and he can slide into home, then I’m coming!” Rabbi Kelemer became one of the best talmidim in the yeshiva.

Before his job in West Hempstead, which he grew into an unbelievable kehilla, Rabbi Kelemer was a Rav in a college town outside of Boston. All the members in that shul were Ivy League people. Professors in Harvard & Yale. A friend asked him “How’d you get the job? There’s huge competition!” Rabbi Kelemer said, “Every other candidate spoke about thermal nuclear physics. I spoke about a shmues I heard from Rav Chaim Shumelevitz. They didn’t want me to be a professor, they wanted me to be a Rav. They knew nuclear physics; I don’t need to connect with them on that level. I needed to teach them authentic Torah.

Rabbi Kelemer was a gaon, a posek, and yet a self-effacing man.

What is the Rav’s opinion about going to a Pesach program this year?

That is a loaded question! I’m very close to the Wermer brothers of KMR. The Wermer brothers are like a cholent. I never met a cholent I didn’t like; I never met a Wermer brother I didn’t like. They are great people and always make a terrific program. A mispallel was there with his family and walked past a room and saw all the Wermers, the entire mishpacha. They wouldn’t touch any of the opulent food. They have a minhag in Chabad to only eat what the mother prepares. So here they are making sure it’s the best kashrus, with the best cuisine, but they themselves don’t eat it because it’s not their minhag.

I have a friend, Rav Daniel Neustadt, who is going to lead a program. A lot of different Rabbanim have gone, including Morainu HaRav Reuven Feinstein. I can’t just say, “Don’t go.” I will say Chag Kasher Vesameach. If you’re going to a program, I know it’s going to be sameach, just make sure it’s Kasher. And those staying home, I know it’s going to be kasher, just make sure it’s sameach. Hashkafically I wrestle with the idea of going away on a Pesach program. Ideally, I think Pesach should be at home with the family. At the same time, I’m not against it because there are big talmidei chachamim that do it. Last year we were locked up, but now we’re open. Get back to normal. Have your children and your grandchildren with you this year.

There’s a new thing in Flatbush where people go away for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur to the bungalow colony. Many others say, I want to be with my kehilla, I want to be with my Rav, I want to be with the people that I daven with the whole year. They’re the best defense I can think of. I’m not against going away and I can understand why people do it. They tell me we go to the Catskill mountains at a higher elevation, so that they’re closer to Hashem. Again, if people are having a tough time then do it, but really I think we should get back to normal! You want to take your mask off? Have Pesach at home. In terms of going to Orlando, I understand that there are those who rent a house, the whole family comes, and the mother comes a week before and kashers the place. You still have the home feeling; you’re with your entire family. As much as I appreciate the program, I won’t do it this year. Personally, I will stay home with my kehilla. One of my mispallilim told me years ago there are two types of shuls; those that need their rabbonim over Yom Tovand those that don’t. We need our Rav. As a Rav, you say shiurim, pasken shailos and still connect with the family. Again, if it’s too difficult for someone to make Pesach, then they should go to a program. In hashkafa, I’m not there yet.

What would you say is the most challenging part of being a Rav in the 21st century?

Making sure your heart is not broken. It’s difficult to see people’s tzaros, feel their pain, and then keep going. It’s so hard to go to a levaya/ kevura and then immediately that evening go to a chasuna afterwards. We need to realize that everyone has needs, even if we can’t solve the problem. We weren’t trained for this. I’m not a psychologist. It’s on the job training. My colleagues, Rav Reisman, Rav Brudny, and other Talmidei Chachamim have the whole world on their shoulders. Rav Twersky, the Hornsteipler Rebbie gives every person a hug. His love is just so evident. I can tell you many Rabbanim just love the people. Rav Lipa Geldwurth was supposed to go away for Purim to Arizona because his children are there. He said to me, How can I go away? What’s going to happen to the people? What kind of Purim will they have?” Being a Rav today is not just paskening shailos and giving shiurim. Sometimes it’s being a father, being a mother, being a coach, and always being a positive influence. The beauty is watching the children of the kehillah grow up. Last week I was by a chasuna; I had been at the chosson’s bris! That’s the most exciting part.

Is there anything else that the Rav would like to mention?

Just to wish all of Klal Yisrael a Chag Kasher V’SAMEACH