Jewish Book Reviews and the view from The Guy Behind The Counter at your local Bookstore.
Moshe Reichmann is someone who everyone knows or at least thinks they know all about.
Most curious people have read at least some contemporaneous articles about this great philanthropists seeming meteoric rise and spectacular fall.
So you’d wonder, why would Artscroll publish his biography, what would it add and why now now?
The Guy Behind The Counter thinks that the answer to all three questions is simply to add a vitally missing perspective to everything you’ve ever read about Rev Moshe Reichmann until now.
There a saying, “there’s no love like a person’s first true love”, for Reb Moshe Reichmann, his first love and enduring love was for the teaching and the dissemination of Torah.
From the desolation of Tangiers, the world of Rav Avraham Kalmanowitz and Mr. Isaac Shalom, spreading the word of Hashem, teaching Torah was Reb Moshe Reichmann’s lifetime enduring love.
This is the unique perspective that R’ Yisroel Besser brings to life in vivid colors. Once you understand to view Reb Moshe Reichmann’s life through the prism of a love for Torah, stories in his life that once looked large are greatly diminished. Other events that even he didn’t make much of take on a greater significance.
The recently departed Gaon Yisroel, Rav Avraham Erlanger, whose multi volume set of Chidushim, Birchas Avraham grace the shelves of serious talmidei chachomim the world over, was only written on so many mesechtos upon the impetus of Reb Moshe Reichmann. That’s a big story.
The legendary Leshem, the great Jerusalem Kabbalist, grandfather of Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, once received regards from the Ben Ish Chai by way of a messenger, who delivered his message a few years late. The message was to tell the Leshem how greatly the Ben Ish Chai was enjoying his sefer. Distraught, the Leshem declared that had he received this regards only a few years earlier, there would be several more volumes of the sefer!
Encouraging Bnei Torah was Reb Moshe Reichmann’s way of Building for Eternity.
Canary Wharf and the World Financial Center are both visionary real estate projects, but anybody could have built them. Just as Reb Moshe Reichman didn’t define his life by what he built when he was on the upswing, it didn’t define him in failure either.
For Toronto to develop as a bastion of Torah and chesed, as beautifully as it has, required the presence of a true visionary, as the Satmar Rov told him to stay because he was needed there. His humbleness at the personal level was legendary.
Recent biographies about other supposedly larger than life figures obscured much of their protagonists middos and family life. Of Reb Moshe Reichman, we get quite a candid view.
Many people of immense wealth and influence are terribly arrogant and haughty, not Reb Moshe Reichman.
A beautiful glimpse into his family time, with his wife and children paints him in true human form. Loving, beloved and respected. He had a beautiful loving relationship with his wife and children, and they loved and respected him back.
He testified in court and had his testimony accepted that he never ate out with business associates at social meetings, it was purely business. That boundary didn’t come at the expense of granting every human being their deserved dignity, be it the doorman, secretary or janitor.
He once sat in the waiting room of a developer for quite a while until noticed. The apology for keeping him waiting was that they thought he was a meshulach. He walked out, refusing to do business with those who disrespect torah scholars. Read more at Theguybehindthecounter
Join Bais Medrash Kol Aryeh tonight in their Annual Chanukah Mesibah on behalf of Rav Eliyhaou Levin shlita and Tifereth Moshe, Kollel Choshen Mishpat and Even HaEzer of Lakewood.
ReplyDeleteOn Chanukah when we lain of the dedication of the Mizbeach let us dedicate ourselves with the real thing. We have Gedolim in our midst. Come Lchazeik U’Lhischazeik with our own Rav Eliyhaou Levin Shlita, and the Kollel Yungerleit.
Rav Levin is a link to the Gedolim and values of the previous generation. A talmid of Rav Elya Lopian ztl, Rav Shach ztl, and Rev Berel Soloveitchik ztl he is a world wide recognized authority on Inyanei Choshen Mishpat. He is perhaps most famous as the driving force behind the heter for the Cantor Fiitzgerald agunot of 9/11 to remarry, Rav Levin is an original; a man of great intellect and unimpeachable integrity.
Tiferet Moshe is what Lakewood is all about. It is where Roshei Yeshiva send their own sons. Birnbaum, Schwab, Barkin, Cohen, Gorelick, eisemann, Yagid, Jacobs, Bronspiegel, Kanarack, Genack, Herzka, Shnaidman, the roster of our talmidim is a veritable Who’s Who of the Yeshiva world. Calls come in with shailos from all corners of the Jewish world. Recognized as in a class onto itself, Tiferet Moshe has hosted delegations from as far away as Mexico, Panama, Russia, Argentina, England, and Israel.
Tiferet Moshe is a resource for the community at large. The function of Tiferet Moshe is to be Marbitz Torah. In addition to the day, afternoon and evening kollels, Anyone who wishes is welcome to use the Kollel’s facilities. Members of the community study on the premises to bask in the energy emanating from the yungerleit. Many have requested chavrusos from among the kollel members.
Come LChazeik U’LHisChazeik with Rav Eliyahu Levin Shlita and the Kollel Yungerleit.