0043 - Harav Moshe Wolfson Part 1

00:01 Harav Moshe Wolfson is the Mashgiach Ruchni of Yeshivas Torah Vedaas, and he has a very, very big kehillah in Boro Park. He's one of the Gedolei Yisrael here in America, and he's very, very close to Lubavitch. He probably would be considered a Lubavitcher Chassid. And he comes every year to Miami for a few weeks, sometimes a few months, and he comes to yeshiva, and he speaks to the bochurim, et cetera, et cetera. And the Rebbe was very much mekarev him, very much miyakir him. Rebbe would always ask him that he should write chiddushai Torah and bring it to the Rebbe. Once he was standing in line. Usually he didn't stand in line when it came to dollars or lekach. So once he was standing in line to get lekach, and when he came over to the Rebbe, the Rebbe said, "You're also standing with all the kids." It's an expression that we say by the aliyah, the kids get on some chasuneh. So the Rebbe used that expression to him. The Rebbe was very much mekarev him. So I once asked him, what is it that made him actually to become a real Chassid of the Rebbe? He saw a lot of meiprasim from the Rebbe, things, but there's one thing he said that made, that did it, that made him to become a Chassid. And this is what he says. He used to go every year to Eretz Yisrael for a few weeks. One year he had a relative, I think it was a

01:12 grandchild who was very sick, and he went then to Eretz Yisrael, and his place where he stayed was right next to a shul. A shul that wasn't even used. It was a chorve shul. Not the famous chorve shul, but it was a shul that was not used and it was empty. So he said at night when he would learn Kriat Shema Shelamit, he would go and do it in that shul. Why? Because during Kriat Shema Shelamit, he would cry a lot at that time because he felt so bad for his grandchild who was sick. So he would cry a lot and he didn't want anyone to see. He didn't want even his rebbetzin to see. So he'd go to that place and say it all alone. And he says mainly when he would say Kriat Shema Shelamit by the words, "Lev Nishber Venitke Lekim Lesibza", that's where he would cry a lot. That's how he felt. He said that's what brought him out to cry. And he would repeat it many times. He would say the pasuk over and over again and crying, asking Deibesh to have rachmanus on this child that needs a refuah. But no one knew it, not even his wife, not even his rebbetzin knew because he did it all alone. After he finished his stay in Eretz Yisrael, he came to New York. He went to the Rebbe for dollars. And by dollars, he asked the Rebbe for a bracha for this child, for this grandchild. So the Rebbe said

02:17 to him, gave him a dollar, and the Rebbe said to him, "And when he saw that, he said no one knew that he had a special kavanah and a special stress on the pasuk, Lev Nishber Venitke Lekim Lesibza. And the Rebbe just pinpointed it like that. He says, this mamash, he didn't know what to say. And that made him become a real, real Chassid of the Rebbe.