12 Jan REMEMBERING RABBI YEHUDA KELEMER ZT”L

I am very much deeply saddened by the petirah of Rabbi Yehuda Kelemer zt”l. I find it hard to believe that this adam gadol meod is no longer with us. Rabbi Kelemer was one of the most remarkable Jews and human beings I ever knew. We first met over fifty years ago, in the late 60s, when we were both learning in the Mirrer Yeshiva in Yerushalayim. I have one image of him from then very clearly emblazoned in my mind, of him walking very quickly in the beis midrash to get to his makom to begin learning. We met again when I moved to Boston in 1973 and he was the Rabbi of the Young Israel of Brookline. I lived over a mile from his shul, and although I davened regularly in Congregation Beth Pinchus led by the Bostoner Rebbe zt”l I would regularly walk on Shabbos Hagadol and Shabbos Shuvah to hear his drashos. My close relationship with Rabbi Kelemer began in earnest when we both moved to the New York area at the beginning of the 1980s, I to Manhattan as Rabbi of The Jewish Center in 1981 and he to West Hempstead to be the Rabbi of the Young Israel there in 1983. I was very honored to have been invited by him to speak at his installation and began a very close connection with him. I turned to him, always, for help with my most difficult shaylos, and he always helped me. Always. I cannot overstate the fact that he had, literally, arbaah chelkei Shulchan Aruch at his fingertips and immediately was able to answer my questions and give me hadrachah, citing mamish the siman where the issue was to be found. I will repeat this sentence: He had, literally, arbaah chelkei Shulchan Aruch at his fingertips. On the rare occasions that he wasn’t sure, he told me that he will call his brother-in-law, Rabbi Walkin, in Israel and ask him to go into Rav Elyashiv and ask him the question. He told me that he would get back to me within 24 hours and he did. Always. He understood baalei batim, he grasped not just the text but the context of the shaylah and was able to address it on the multiple levels it required to be addressed. Always. While in Boston in the early 2000s I started a Yarchei Kallah Program for pulpit rabbis across North America, and beyond, under the auspices of the Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Institute that I then headed. I invited Rabbi Kelemer to one of the earlier conferences to answer halakhic shaylos the rabbis had. Once again, he was incredibly helpful, and addressed each shaylah and each rabbi, ba’asher hem sham. The result was that now he became the posek for dozens of rabbis – repeat: dozens of rabbis – who turned to him for guidance. Of course, the only way to reach him, as I learned early on, was to call one of his four cell phone numbers after midnight. I can’t count the number of times when I fell asleep, only to be awakened by the alarm clock I set for 12:30am to call him. And when I did, the line was busy, on more than one of his cell phones simultaneously. I sent not only rabbis to him but baalei batim who had very serious and complicated questions – about end of life, fertility, dinei mamonus, and more. He treated everyone with great kindness, extraordinary derech eretz and human dignity; everybody, me-chotev eitzecha ad shoev meimecha. And all of this, besides serving as the Rav and Mara D’Asra of a growing shul, bursting at the seams under his leadership. Rabbi Kelemer’s bein adam lechaveiro was legendary. I know of many stories where he showed up in a hospital far from West Hempstead at 2am to sit and daven at the bedside of a choleh. I can’t begin to imagine the number of personal chasadim he did for thousands of people, literally, over the years. I don’t think that anyone can possibly begin to imagine how many there were. I have lost a personal friend and very respected rebbe. We have all lost an incredible giant, a giant in Torah, in psak, in bein adam la-makom and bein adam la-chaveiro. I will miss him terribly. Yehi zichro baruch. Yehi zichro baruch.