2nd Candle of Hanukkah
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| R' Goldstein, right - speaking at the Diaspora Yeshiva on Mount Zion. Photo credit: Ben Bresky. |
My Rebbe and My Mentor...by R' Ephraim Sprecher
It is with great sadness that I write about
the passing of
Rabbi Mordechai Goldstein zz"l, Rosh Yeshiva of the Diaspora
Yeshiva on Mount
Zion in Jerusalem. Despite being extremely ill these past three
and a half
years and being confined to a wheelchair, he continued to give
outstanding
shiurim in the Yeshiva.
An early Talmid of Rav Aharon Kotler in
Lakewood and Rav Henoch Liebowitz at Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Queens, Rabbi
Goldstein was the
first pioneer of the contemporary Ba'al Teshuvah movement in Israel. In
1965, before there
was a concept of a Ba'al Teshuvah Yeshiva, Rabbi Goldstein
established the
Diaspora Yeshiva in Jerusalem, which was opened to one and all.
He loved and
accepted all Jews without being judgmental. After the 1967 Six
Day War, the
Diaspora Yeshiva moved to Mount Zion, the site of King David’s
Tomb. The
Lubavitcher Rebbe told Rav Goldstein zz"l how privileged and
fortunate he is to
have King David as a next door neighbor.
I was a student in the Yeshiva in 1970 when I
was twenty
years old. One morning as I lay in bed, Rabbi Goldstein sat down
on my bed and shook
me gently and with love in his eyes told me, "Ephraim, it’s time
for Shacharit,
G-d is waiting for you." When I made Aliyah in 1994, Rav
Goldstein zz"l invited
me to teach in his Yeshiva. He told me that I was to be his
spiritual fireman.
My job was to put out the fires of assimilation and secularism
which are
threatening to consume many lost Jewish souls.
The prophet Malachi states, “The lips of the
Kohen-Rebbe
imparts knowledge, and Torah you shall seek from his mouth,
because he is an
Angel of G-d.” The Talmud in Chagiga explains this verse, that
if your Rebbe is
like an Angel of G-d then study Torah from him, but if not,
don’t study from
him. This is a strange statement because Kohelet teaches “There
is no Tzaddik
on Earth who does only good and never sins.” Every person sins!
So according to
the Talmud we should not study Torah from any Rebbe? But the
explanation is, that
the difference between an Angel and a person is that an Angel
can’t move
forward and cannot progress spiritually. Unlike a person who can
move forward,
grow, advance and progress spiritually. So the Talmud means that
if your Rebbe
is willing to give up his own spiritual growth and progress for
his students,
that’s the type of Rebbe you should seek out.
AMEN
***
Blogger's note: Our own Diaspora Yeshiva connection began with R' Mordechai's son, R' Avraham Goldstein, who visited us in our diaspora city and even gave a shiur in our house. R' Avraham became the Rosh Yeshiva of Diaspora when the Rav became ill. After I made aliyah and finished ulpan, I spent almost 2 years learning with the Rav's wife, Rabbanit Mollie Goldstein, at Machon Roni, Diaspora's Torah Seminary for women (también Midreshet-Roni enseña a las mujeres en español. Yo creo que la Yeshiva también enseña a los hombres; pero, a mi pesar, no encontré ninguna página con que enlazar.). My husband began studying with R' Sprecher at Diaspora Yeshiva some six months after our arrival, and is still learning with him more than 9 years later.
***
More Diaspora Yeshiva: Diaspora Yeshiva's Pre-1967 History, The Vatican and Mount Zion (featuring a 2013 audio interview between the Rav's son R' Yitzhak Goldstein, now Diaspora's Rosh Yeshiva, and Judy Simon, Arutz 7) | Facebook | Diaspora Yeshiva Band | About the Yeshiva
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