This is not a conventional rabbinic biography. The facts recorded here have hardly ever appeared in print or been made public by means of the spoken word. They are drawn from personal recollections and family archives, and are intended to capture the spirit, the very soul, of a great posek.
Rav Moshe was born on the seventh day of Adar, 5755 (March 3, 1895), to Rav David and his wife, Fia Gittel, in the town of Uzda in White Russia. A study of their lineage facilitates an appreciation of Rav Moshe s'ע"ה aristocratic bearing, as well as an understanding of the feeling of self-confidence in pesak which accompanied him from his earliest days as a posek. He truly embodied the saying of our sages, מאן מלכי רבנן, "Who are our kings? Our Torah greats!"
Rav Moshe's father, Rav David, ע"ה, was a direct descendant of Rav Avraham. brother of the Vilna Gaon and author of the Maalos HaTorah. The Vilna Gaon and his brother Rav Avraham in turn were direct descendants of the author of Be'er HaGolah, whose notations are on every page of the Shulchan Aruch, and provide source references for all who study the Shulchan Aruch. Rav Avraham Tzvi Kamai, זצוק"ל, who founded the Mirrer Yeshiva (and whose son-in-law, Rav Finkel, זצוק"ל, later became Rosh Yeshiva) was the grandson of Rav Avraham and thus related to R. Moshe's father, Rav David.
At some point Koidenover Chasidus entered the Feinstein family, but the date of this occurrence is somewhat uncertain. Rav Moshe's great-grandfather, Rav David, was a Koidenover Chasid, as was Rav David, Rav Moshe's father, in his youth. Rav David was a phenomenal talmid chacham and an extremely wealthy financier. He was the one who established the family's custom of standing motionless, like a servant before a king, while praying Shemoneh Esreh. Rav David was much respected by the gentiles and served as financial adviser or estate steward to the lord of a manor (paritz). As such he was responsible for all the estate's monetary outlays. One day, in drunken revelry, the paritz boasted to his friends about Rav David's all-but-miraculous powers of concentration. His friends challenged him to put his boast to the test, and so, while Rav David was standing in intense prayer during the Minchah Shemoneh Esreh, they approached him and fired a musket just inches from his head. Rav David was not startled. This "miraculous" behavior was discussed widely; Rav David was marked as a man whose relationship with the Ribbono Shel Olom was exemplary.
To return to Rav Moshe's parents: Rav David's mother—Rav Moshe's grandmother—died young, and thus Rav David was raised by his father's second wife, Raize, ע"ה. One of Rav Moshe's sisters was named Shoshana הי"ד, the Hebrew equivalent of Raize, in recognition of their step-grandmother's devotion. Rav David's father, Yechiel Michel, was also a phenomenal scholar, and known as such from a tender age.
Rav Moshe's father, Rav David, was known as an illuy. When Eliyahu Feinstein, the Rav of Pruzhan and the father of Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik's mother, was looking for a chasan for his sister-in-law, he rejected Rav David as a possibility because he was a Chasid. But when Rav Eliyahu Pruzhaner, who was then twenty-four years old, met Rav David, then only thirteen, he was so impressed with his mastery of Torah and his almost supernatural brilliance that he agreed to take him as a chasan for his sister-in-law on condition that he give up Chasidus and spend four years of study at the yeshiva in Volozhin.
Rav David agreed to these conditions and became a committed Volozhiner under the tutelage of Rav Refoel Shapiro and Rav Yitzchok Fried, who directed the yeshiva in the years before the Netziv became Rosh Yeshiva. At the age of seventeen, Rav David married Fia Gittel, the sister of Guta Kisha, the daughter of Rav Yitzchok Yechiel Halevi, who was the Av Beis Din of Karelitz.
Special note ought to taken of the great tzidkus of Rav Moshe's uncle, Rav Eliyahu Pruzhaner. Rav Eliyahu turned down the great rabbanus of Kletzk, a major city of talmidei chachamim, to accept the rabbanus in a small town, Karelitz, on condition that when he left there, for whatever reason, the town would accept Rav David Feinstein, the father of Rav Moshe, to be Rav in his place. This was because Rav David had agreed to accept a lifelong obligation to care for the almanah of Rav Yitzchok Yechiel Halevi.
Rav Moshe often said that the real meyuchesses of the Feinstein family was his mother, Fia Gittel. As the daughter of Yitzchok Yechiel Karelitz, she was a direct descendent of the author of Seder HaDoros. The author of Seder HaDoros, although known to us mainly for his historical work, identifying and dating the greats in the line of transmission of Torah to our generation, was also, or even more so, one of the greatest Talmudic minds of all generations. He could trace his yichus directly back to David HaMelech, as could the Maharshal, also a member of this illustrious family.
Rav Moshe would add, in describing the great yichus of his mother, that Rav Yitzchok Yechiel, her father, whose surname was Davidovitz, could trace his yichus back in direct line of male descent from the Shelah HaKadosh. Her father was the sixth generation in the line of the rabbanim of Kappula in Russia, which was famous for its great talmidei chachamim. The most famous was Ber Kappula, a figure of almost mythical standing. Non-Jews from all of Russia came to him for brachos.
The Kappula rabbanim were descendants of Yom Tov Heller, the Tosefos Yom Tov. Rav Moshe's father, Rav David, fasted and feasted on the days that the Tosefos Yom Tov had declared as a family obligation because of the tragedies and salvation that had come to him during the years when he was persecuted by the Russian government. (My son, Rav Mordechai, who served as his grandfather's aide and secretary for almost twenty years, has taken this obligation upon himself.)
Rav Moshe also spoke of a great-grandmother named Rochel, who grew up in the same town as the son-in-law of the Baal HaTanya. She had a brilliant mind and a great soul, with an insatiable love of Torah, but there were no schools for girls in those days. As a consequence, the rabbanim of the town let her sit in the back of the room in the cheder where the Tzemach Tzedek, who became the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, was also a student.
Interestingly enough, Rav Moshe did not hear this story from his own family, but learned of it while he was Rav in Luban. At that time the Lubavitcher Rebbe had convened a conference of Russian rabbanim, and Rav Moshe and Isser Zalman Meltzer were asked to attend. Rav Moshe questioned the invitation since he had no direct relationship with the Lubavitcher in Russia. The Rebbe sent him a note explaining, and I quote Rav Moshe, "Your bobbe belonged to us. She studied with our Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek."
Yitzchok Yechiel, Rav Moshe's maternal grandfather, had four sons-in-law. The first, Rav Eliyahu Pruzhaner, was the father of Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik's mother, Peshe, ז"ל. The second was Rav Yaacov Kanterovitz, whom Rav Moshe refers to in his Iggeros Moshe, as "my uncle the great Gaon." The third was Rav David Feinstein, and the fourth was Rav Moshe, the father of Berl Katzenelson, David Ben-Gurion's mentor. By coincidence, Rav Eliyahu and Rav David died on the same day, 27 Tishrei, a year apart. All the cousins, the descendants of these four sons-in-law, remained very close, even though some of the Katzenelsons had already distanced themselves from a Torah life.
So much for Rav Moshe's descent. Now for some insights into the personality of this great posek, based upon the events of his life. Rav Moshe's reputation as a great talmid chacham dated from his childhood. Once, when he was nine years old, Rav Eliyahu visited his brother-in-law, Rav David. When the little Moshe walked in, Rav Eliyahu stood up as a sign of respect. Rav David, who never raised his voice, exploded in anger, and I quote as Rav Moshe related it, "Do you want to destroy my son?" and ordered Rav Moshe out of the room. As this incident illustrates, Rav Moshe's mastery of the trait of modesty came from the upbringing provided by his father. Rav David was the primary teacher with whom he studied three sedarim of Shas, learning all the Volozhiner shiurim that Rav David had recorded. The Volozhin curriculum involved studying all of Shas from Brachos to Nidah, page by page and not topically as is done in many yeshivas today. Every single page and line of the Gemora was studied and analyzed.
In his youth, Rav Moshe's diligence earned the respect of his elders, most of whom were great talmidei chachamim. He remained in the Beis Hamedrash all day, without interrupting his studies to return home for meals. Instead, his sister Chana, ע"ה, would bring him his meals. She later become renowned for her chesed and intelligence, and married Rav Yitzchok Small, ז"ל, one of the leaders of the Chicago rabbinate. With this help and support, Rav Moshe completed his study of all of Shas for the first time at age nineteen.
Rav David sent Rav Moshe for one year to the nearby town of Slutzk, where he studied with Isser Zalman Meltzer. A dispute arose between Isser Zalman and his mashgiach, Rav Pesach Pruskin. They decided to go to a din Torah with Rav David as the dayyan. Rav David ruled that Rav Pesach Pruskin could take ten talmidim and establish a new yeshiva. Rav Moshe was chosen to be one of the ten and left Isser Zalman to study with Pesach Pruskin for three years. During this time he lived in Rav Pesach's house and became extremely close to him. Rav Moshe led a chavurah in Ketzos HaChoshen, which explains his special mastery of this classic work.
Indeed, Rav Moshe's derech in learning came from his father and from Rav Pesach, as reported by the Gaon Rav Gustman, זצ"ל. It was Rav Gustman who related to us many stories about Rav Moshe's intellectual powers and exemplary character. Rav Moshe would never have told these stories himself, but he confirmed them after Rav Gustman told them.
Rav Pesach used to say that it was a special zechus to have had a talmid, Rav Moshe, who surpassed him many, many fold. The following anecdote provides an insight into the gedolim of the last generation. As stated above, Isser Zalman and Pesach Pruskin had a falling out and had to go to a din Torah. Despite this, when Rav Pesach Pruskin arranged the chanukas habayis of his new yeshiva, the guest speaker was none other than Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer. Rav Moshe was honored to give a public shiur that day, a shiur which was later published in his Dibros Moshe on Bava Kamma without modification.
Rav Moshe was early recognized as the premier posek in Russia. He had a dispute with Rav Yechezkel Abramsky, זצ"ל, as to whether it was permissible for a woman to go to the mikvah with a plug of cotton in her ear. The woman in question had undergone surgery for mastoiditis, and was required to insert the plug in order to prevent water from entering and causing serious medical problems. Rav Moshe was then in Luban, and Rav Abramsky was the Rav of Slutsk. Rav Moshe declared the tevilah effective, while Rav Abramsky prohibited immersing with the cotton. As was customary in those days on an issue so important, they sent their responsa to Rav Chaim Ozer in Vilna for his adjudication. Rav Gustman, who was the youngest member of the Beis Din of Rav Chaim Ozer, reported that Rav Chaim Ozer answered that he too had written a responsum permitting it, but "Rav Moshe's teshuvah was several levels more brilliant than mine." He added, "There are two brothers in Russia, much greater than I, who study Torah with the tradition that goes back to Ezra the Scribe—Rav Moshe in Luban and Rav Mordechai in Shklov."
In 1915, Russia was losing World War I. At the time, Rav Moshe's mother was seriously ill, and his brother, Rav Mordechai, was taking care of her. That year all draft exemptions for rabbinical students were canceled, although until then the Russian government, despite its antisemitic policies, had exempted rabbinical students from military service. All rabbinical students were now required to register for the draft, but Rav Moshe, who had an uncanny sense of time and place, decided to avoid the local draft board and instead went to the regional board. At that time, the Chofetz Chaim, who had fled from war-torn Radin, was in the town of Gomel. Rav Moshe, his brother Rav Yaacov, and their father, Rav David, on their way to the regional draft board, detoured in order to ask the Chofetz Chaim for a brachah. Rav David introduced his sons and explained the nature of their visit. The Chofetz Chaim answered, "It says that whoever takes upon himself the yoke of Torah is exempt from the yoke of secular obligations. However, the text does not say—אין שמין עליו עול דרך ארץ—that the yoke of secular obligations will not be imposed, but rather—מעבירין ממנו עול דרך ארץ—that it will be removed." Rav Moshe accepted this as a very meaningful brachah from the great tzaddik, Chofetz Chaim.
When they reached the regional draft board, there was a long line. Rav Moshe suggested to his father, "Let's talk to those who are leaving so that we can find out what is facing us." After speaking to many of the young men who had just appeared before the draft board and learning that even the lame and the ill were not exempted despite their physical infirmities, but were taken immediately into the army, Rav Moshe decided that this was not a good time to present himself. They returned to the hotel and a few hours later learned that a revision of the draft-exemption rules would be issued the very next day. The new rules retained everyone who had already been drafted, but instituted a modified exemption for clergy, both Jewish and Christian. Students would still not be exempted, but rabbinic functionaries over the age of twenty-five would be. Rav Moshe was then twenty years old, but they paid a local official 300 gold rubles, a massive sum of money, to change his birth certificate and make him five years older.
Rav Moshe now became the Rav of Uzda. However, he could not bear the kavod, the ceremonials of the rabbanus in Uzda, which violated his innate sense of modesty, so he decided to leave. With his brother, Rav Mordechai, he went to the nearby town of Izdarobin, where they established their own yeshiva. Izdarobin means "old rabbi," since the town had a reputation for employing the most prestigious rabbanim in Russia. The yeshiva they opened had, as one of its famous talmidim, HaRav Moshe Tzvi Neria זצ"ל, the founder of the Benai Akiva Yeshiva network in Eretz Yisroel. Rav Neria became Rav Mordechai's talmid muvhak and followed him to Shklov, where he had assumed the rabbanus. Rav Neria and five other of the talmidim of Rav Moshe and Rav Mordechai were sent to Israel when the antisemitism in Russia became unbearable. As Rav Moshe recalled it, there was only one Rav in Eretz Yisroel whom they recognized as an adam gadol, and that was Harav Kook, זצ"ל. They sent him their six best talmidim, all of whom made great contributions to the dissemination of Torah in Eretz Yisroel.
Although Rav Moshe was Rav in Uzda for only a short time, he was always grateful to the townspeople for saving his life, for it was that rabbanus that made his draft exemption possible. On his matzevah we recorded that he was Rav of Uzda as an expression of his sense of gratitude to them.
Despite his innate modesty, Rav Moshe developed an extraordinary self-confidence in halachic decision-making. It is important to recognize that this was, indeed, one of the distinguishing characteristics of his responsa. Rav Moshe often said, "An anav is not one who does not know his own greatness. It is one who expects nothing from others." As was noted above, even as a child he was treated as a great talmid chacham. His self-confidence was reinforced by the total allegiance of the community in Luban, where he served with such distinction. He was, literally, the lord and master of Luban, and no one ever questioned the accuracy or wisdom of his responsa.
Rav Moshe often said that he was the last official Rav in Russia. After the Revolution, the Communists could not openly prohibit rabbanus because it was permitted by the Soviet Constitution, but they imposed a heavy "parasite tax" or "bourgeoisie tax" on rabbanim. In order to avoid the tax, many rabbanim resigned from their official positions, though they would remain in town to serve the needs of the people. Rav Moshe, however, said that this was forbidden under the injunction of יהרג ואל יעבור, which sometimes demands the forfeiture of one's life. Whenever a rabbi resigned from the rabbanus, the Communist newspapers would carry a gloating report that another rabbi had given up his "decadent religion." Rav Moshe refused to resign because it would have amounted to כפירה, or renouncing faith in Hashem and His Torah.
All of Rav Moshe's salary went to pay the tax, and as a result he was literally penniless. When he still refused to resign, the Communists mounted a campaign against him. They confiscated his shul building; they took away his home; they took away his food rations. The fast-day of the tenth of Teves had special significance for Rav Moshe. Even in later years, when his physical health did not allow him to fast on Shiva Asar Be-Tammuz or Tzom Gedaliah, he always fasted on Asarah Be-Teves. It was a day of personal tragedy to him, for on this day they took away his shul. On the very same day a briefcase containing his many chiddushei Torah was stolen. He always kept these in a leather case and happened to take it along on a journey. A fellow passenger on the train stole the case and with it, years of his Torah writings.
When the authorities confiscated his home, Rav Moshe and his wife and three children had no place to live. He moved in with the local shoemaker, Asher der Shuster, who lived in one room with his family. The shoemaker divided the room in half with a curtain and shared his food ration with Rav Moshe, whom he regarded as his great Rebbe. Asher der Shuster knew all of Shas by heart.
In his later years Rav Moshe explained why he had taken kesavim (writings) with him when he went on this train trip. He took them wherever he went, because in the 1920s, during the Russian civil war, Luban had been subjected to a pogrom on Lag Be-Omer. At that time he was still unmarried, and because of the pogrom, he had put his kesavim in a case so that he could flee, if need be, without leaving them behind.
As Rav Moshe recalled the pogrom, he had a premonition that the gentiles were about to attack and decided to leave the house. The Jews had been warned that marauding hoards of drunken peasants, led by their priests, were looting and raping and killing. Pogroms often involved the use of mortars or light artillery provided by the local army commanders. Minutes after he left his house, it was hit by a shell and blown up. They had targeted the rabbi's house. With people shooting at him, but nonetheless holding on to his kesavim, Rav Moshe ran until he could run no more. Finally, he hid in a field behind a stone wall and left the satchel of writings there.
Two days later, when the surviving townspeople returned to bury their dead, they found the kesavim and brought them to Isser Zalman in Slutzk. He immediately sent them to Rav David, who assumed that his son, Rav Moshe, had been killed. Indeed, he asked Isser Zalman whether finding the writings was sufficient proof of his son's death and therefore necessitated that he begin the mourning period. Isser Zalman responded, "No, I am sure he is alive."
Several weeks later, Rav Moshe reappeared. He had been hiding in the woods near a town twenty-five kilometers from Luban. He had spent several nights in a field, but then a Jewish family had risked their lives by taking him in until he could recover from his ordeal and head back to Luban. Rav Moshe, as we all knew him in times of family crisis, was a most competent, cool-headed individual despite his great empathy and emotional involvement with anyone who was under stress. His rational mind remained as if detached, able to properly evaluate what must be done.
For the rest of his life, it was Rav Moshe's custom to observe the modified mourning rules for all of Sefirah without breaking for Lag Be-Omer because of the tragedy that had befallen his town on that day.
On the first Shabbos Vayerah that he spent in our home in Monsey, Rav Moshe related the following story, which dates to his time in Luban.
During the first year of his rabbanus in Luban, a townsman fell seriously ill and Rav Moshe went to visit him. The patient was a very beloved member of the community and many people were there. He could barely speak. His tongue was swollen and seemed to fill his mouth.
When Rav Moshe arrived, the patient asked all the other visitors to leave. He just wanted to be alone with the Rav of Luban. The patient said to Rav Moshe, "I know why I am ill and why I will die. On Parshas Vayera, several weeks ago, I commented to several people that I was astounded that Hashem would have David HaMelech come from women who had committed incest with their father," referring to the daughters of Lot. That night, he said, "I dreamt that two old women, dressed in black, came and complained to me as follows, Why did you debase and insult us? We could have claimed that we became pregnant by an angel of Hashem and then we would have been honored throughout the generations. Instead, we told the truth and named our children Moab, meaning "from father," and Benei Amon, "a son from my own people," so that no one would ever be able to claim that they had been conceived by means of immaculate conception. Had we not done so, there would have been veracity to such claims.'" The patient said, "I know how terribly I sinned, and Hashem insists that I must pay with my life." The following morning he died.
Rav Moshe's father-in-law, Rav Yaakov, a great tzadik renowed for his hospitality, was the shochet of Luban, and Rav Moshe himself had kabbala for shechita, but he did not like to shecht. It was his custom to employ live chickens for kapparos on Erev Yom Kippur, and he would call a shochet to the house. However, during his last year in Luban, when it was dangerous to engage in any religious ritual, he served as an auxiliary shochet.
In the United States, Rav Moshe gave kabbala to many who had prepared to become shochtim. After testing their mastery of the relevant halachos, he would also test their tactile sensitivity in detecting minor nicks in the shechitah knife. His own ability to detect the slightest imperfections was almost superhuman. I was often present during these examinations. Once, an aspiring candidate who had failed to detect a pegima defended himself by claiming that the siren of a passing fire engine had disturbed his concentration. Rav Moshe gave this excuse short shrift. "When you are preparing to slaughter an animal in accord with Hashem's commandments, nothing should interfere with your ability to concentrate."
Rav Moshe had an innate, almost instinctive mastery of mathematics. When the Communists took over White Russia, Jewish children were required to attend public schools. There, the teachers tried to indoctrinate them with the "religion" of the state—atheism. A female secondary school teacher in Luban was infuriated when the children countered her attacks on religion by quoting their "Rabbiner." The teacher began to denigrate Rav Moshe, poking fun at the ignorant "Rabbiner" who couldn't even do simple mathematics.
To underline the point, and cast doubt on Rav Moshe's reputation for brilliance, the teacher sent him a calculus problem that she had obtained from her university professor, a problem deemed far too difficult for someone who had only studied elementary mathematics. When the children came home and told their parents, the townsfolk actually went into mourning because of the embarrassment their great Rav would have to endure.
Nevertheless, fearful of the teacher's wrath, they presented Rav Moshe with the calculus problem. Rav Moshe asked one of the children for his textbook, sat with it for several hours, and then wrote a solution to the question posed. The teacher was astounded and sent a second problem which Rav Moshe solved within minutes, asking the student to return it immediately so that the teacher would know he had not sought help from anyone else. The teacher insisted on meeting Rav Moshe and, thereafter, became his protector. As the laws against the rabbinate became more and more severe, she would tell the local Communist officials that these laws did not apply to this Rabbiner, who was a great scholar in mathematics and not a "useless parasite."
It is hard to know for sure what finally made Rav Moshe decide to emigrate to America. For some time relatives in the United States had been urging him to leave Russia because of the growing antisemitism and the threat of war, but he refused to leave his people. He subsequently related that the final insult or threat to his family occurred on the Pesach of the year 1935. The local Communist officials had issued a ruling prohibiting the children from attending seders, alleging that the ritual theft of the afikoman actually taught the youngsters to be thieves.
Cynical, sarcastic edicts of this kind were usually leveled against the local Jewish communities by Communist officials who had themselves once been yeshiva students. They would visit the homes to make sure that the children were not participating in the seder. Then they added a new spin. They convened a special school assembly on the seder night, and truant officers were sent to the homes to collect the students, since it was nighttime, and escort them to the school building. The whole program at the school assembly was to issue each and every student a piece of black bread and have them eat it, knowing full well the anguish this would cause youngsters from Torah-observant homes.
After this incident Rav Moshe decided to apply for a passport. Again, he decided that it would not be wise to apply at the local office. Instead, in 1936 he went to Moscow and applied for a passport there. In order to establish himself as a resident of Moscow, he rented a room sixty kilometers from the city and dressed like a worker, living with a family in a rented room.
The address of this residence was not without significance, as I recently learned from Rav Yosef Zalman Goldberg, שליט"א, son-in-law of Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, זצ"ל. The apartment belonged to Rav Goldberg's father, and served as the "legitimizing" address not only for Rav Moshe, but for a number of other rabbanim who had come to Moscow in order to apply for passports.
While living in Moscow, Rav Moshe went to the local shul incognito, never identifying himself. People noticed, however, that he was studying in a Mishnayos and asked him if he could teach them Mishnayos since they had no Rav. Over the next few months Rav Moshe would give the Mishnayos shiur there in the afternoon. This became a social event for the entire area. Several hundred people came to hear this unknown Jew display his mastery of Torah.
Rav Moshe later realized that conducting the shiur had been a serious tactical error, for his application for a passport was refused, and this must have been because the government, through its many spies, had learned of his activities. He finally obtained a passport through the intervention of his brother-in-law, Rav Nechemiah Katz, שליט"א, who had married the daughter of the Rav of Toledo, Ohio, and had become the rabbi of that town.
Indeed, here we can see the workings of Hashem. Some years before, Rav Nechemiah had taken all of Rav Moshe's wedding money and dowry to invest in a sure-fire deal that he promised would profit them enough to be able to buy a whole Shas, something which the town did not have. They had extremely dilapidated single volumes but not a complete Shas. As fate would have it, Uncle Nechemiah, as we know him, lost all the money. Depressed by this failure, he decided to leave for the United States. This decision and the heroic efforts that Nechemiah made through Senator Robert A. Taft, Sr., and others enabled Rav Moshe and his family to obtain the necessary passport and visas, thus saving their lives.
When the passport was delivered by mail to the legal address, sixty kilometers away, Rav Moshe had moved and was now living in a rented room in Moscow. He learned that the passport had arrived only eight days before its expiration date. Despite the need for haste, however, he took the time to prepare a calendar for the Luban community showing all the dates for Rosh Chodesh and the Yomim Tovim for the next eighteen years. Rav Moshe had a very special mastery and love for the rules of the Jewish calendar and even in America wrote his own luach rather than purchase a printed one. Sadly, the town did not survive eighteen years; every one of its Jewish residents was cruelly killed by the animals in human form who gleefully did the bidding of Nazi Germany.
On the train from Luban to Riga, in Lithuania, Rav Moshe woke up with a pasuk from Tehillim (141:6) running through his mind, ושמעו אמרי כי נעמו, "they will hear My words because they are pleasant," which he interpreted as a message from Hashem that all would be well.
When Rav Moshe and his family arrived in the United States, Rav Moshe Soloveitchik, זצ"ל, and a large contingent of rabbanim were waiting on the dock to greet him. This made a great impression on Rav Moshe, bolstering his spirits, which were still depressed by memories of the beloved town he had been forced to leave.
Soon after his arrival he gave two public shiurim, one at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchok Elchanon) and the other at Yeshiva Torah Vodaas. Both institutions offered him positions, but he did not accept because in each case the administration was run by laymen, and he felt that a yeshiva would fail if its adminstration was in the hands of anyone but the Roshei Yeshiva. Interestingly, his first shiur was given at the yeshiva of Yeshiva University, and at his levayah the largest contingent was made up of students from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and girls from Stern College, who filled the streets on East Broadway. Thus the Rosh Yeshiva of RIETS in 1935, Rav Moshe Soloveitchik, gave Rav Moshe his first kavod in the United States, and a later generation of Yeshiva University students, his last.
An honored member of the Feinstein family berated Rav Moshe for coming to the United States. As Rav Moshe recalled, he said to him, "I told you not to come. There is nothing for you here in America. In Europe you were offered the position of the Rogatchover Gaon. Why didn't you accept it?" Rav Moshe answered, "I came to America to be a street cleaner. I do not expect a rabbanus. I am prepared to clean the streets, to be a shammes, as long as my children will learn to make a brachah and be Jewish."
Taken aback, Rav Moshe's relative responded, "No, no you won't have to do that. We will try to do something for you." Indeed, the Feinstein family was instrumental in giving Rav Moshe an opportunity to start a yeshiva in Cleveland with the father-in-law of Rav Ruderman, זצ"ל, the founder of Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in Baltimore. Rav Moshe left his family for seven months to evaluate what could be done in Cleveland and returned convinced that he did not have the ability to succeed there. Rav Moshe would later say that he had regretted this decision all his life and did not understand his own motivation at that time.
Here, too, the hand of Hashem was evident. His wife, Rebbetzin Sima Feinstein ע"ה, had a first cousin, Rav Yosef Adler, זצ"ל, who was the Rosh Yeshiva of Mesivta Tifereth Jerusalem on the Lower East Side of New York. Rav Adler invited Rav Moshe to start a Beis Medrash and Semichah program there. Two years later, Rav Adler drowned while swimming off the beach in Far Rockaway, and Rav Moshe became the Rosh Yeshiva of Mesivta Tifereth Jerusalem.
There are many anecdotes told about Rav Moshe. Most of them are apocryphal. Some of them are even debasing. Rav Moshe, above all, was a normal healthy personality, a normal husband, a normal father, a normal grandfather who took great pride and joy in his family.
Rav Moshe did not overtly display any special tzidkus or chasidus. His only publicly displayed middah was his gentleness. In the evening he would often go for a walk with his wife and stop in at the local candy store to buy a glass of soda. He read the newspaper every morning at the breakfast table, whatever newspaper it might be—the socialistic Forward, or the Tag, or the Morning Journal and then the Algemeiner Journal.
Stories reporting unusual behavior on the part of Rav Moshe are by their very nature false and insulting, for they are designed to pervert his most important message for our generation, and that is that mastery of Torah does not distort the human personality but only adds grace and glory to it.
The trait of emes, of absolute integrity, permeated all his responsa, all his behavior, his very personality. As was mentioned earlier, Rav Moshe escaped the military draft in Russia by obtaining a birth certificate that made him five years older than his actual age. The same birth year was subsequently recorded on his passport and on other documents when he arrived in the United State. For the first five years after he became eligible for Social Security, Rav Moshe regularly returned his monthly checks, offering no explanation except to say, "Thank you, I do not need it. When I need it, I will let you know."
He did not want to tell the government that the birthdate on his passport was false, but he also did not want to take money to which he was not entitled. He returned his checks for five years. I had the special zechus to return many of them for him. When the five years passed, he began cashing the Social Security checks.
Rav Moshe gave a disproportionate percentage of his income to charity. He kept records of every penny that he gave for tzedakah, never returning an envelope that he received in the mail from an organization without putting in a few dollars.
Over the years he was audited five times by the Internal Revenue Service. The large amount of charitable donations he claimed seemed out of line with his salary of $7,000 a year, but he never claimed a penny for any tzedakah for which he did not have a receipt. On each of the five occasions when his tax return was reviewed, the auditor was so impressed by Rav Moshe's integrity, honesty, and meticulous care in handling charity funds that he sent him a gracious, courteous letter of apology for troubling him. Unfortunately, this never prevented his return from being pulled the next time, obviously having triggered some warning bell in the review process!
During his early years at Mesivta Tifereth Jerusalem, Rav Moshe's salary was $35 a week. He could not afford the carfare home to East New York, where he and his family resided near his brother-in-law, Rav Reuven Levovitz, ז"ל, the husband of Rebbetzin Feinstein's sister, Zlota, ע"ה. Rav Moshe slept on a bench in the Beis Medrash all week until they were able to find an apartment on the Lower East Side.
During these early years, when he was just establishing himself in the American rabbinic world, Rav Moshe was asked to adjudicate a major dispute between some of the most powerful rabbanim in the United States and some shochtim in the slaughterhouses that they supervised. Rav Moshe ruled against the rabbanim and in favor of the shochtim. He would gleefully tell the tale of how the rabbanim threatened him, saying, "We tried to help you and you turned against us. You're finished in America." Rav Moshe's response was, "My role was not to help you or myself, but to state the halachah without prejudice, which I did."
The din Torah, being a very public one with many people involved, was soon known throughout the Jewish world. Thereafter, every difficult din Torah in America was referred to Rav Moshe and he became the final arbiter for everyone who feared the political power of the "establishment." He presided at hundreds of dinei Torah, and the next volume of Iggeros Moshe (vol. 9) will consist of his halachic rulings on these din Torahs and the rationale behind the decisions.
Rav Moshe's integrity as a posek was the target of a concerted attack by the Satmar community. Their ire had been aroused by his famous responsum on donor insemination. The Satmar Rebbe sent a committee consisting of their three greatest talmidei chachamim to meet with Rav Moshe and ask him to retract the teshuvah.
The Rebbe had told them, however, not to get into a discussion of halachic sources with Rav Moshe. They did not heed their Rebbe's warning and began discussing the topic from Talmudic sources. Rav Moshe devastated them, pointing out that they had never even mastered the simple understanding of the Talmudic text. They responded, "Well, the Rebbe warned us not to talk to you about learning." To which Rav Moshe responded, "Your Rebbe is wiser than you."
The Satmar never missed an opportunity to show antagonism to Rav Moshe. When Rav Moshe visited Israel in 1964, he went to visit the leaders of the Neturei Karta. They apologized for not greeting him at the airport, explaining that the Satmar Rebbe had forbidden it. When Rav Moshe asked why he had done that, they responded, "Because you became President of the Agudas Yisroel and this gives Agudah their only prestige. We do not want the Agudah to be such a powerful organization."
They repeatedly leveled attacks on Rav Moshe, all focusing on two specific teshuvos, the one on donor insemination, and the one on the nature and height of the mechitzah in a synagogue. Rav Moshe often expressed bewilderment that a halachah could be perverted for political reasons. How sad he would be to learn how frequently that happens nowadays, especially among those who willfully pervert his responsa.
Rav Moshe could not understand holding a grudge against anybody, and he often came to the aid of members of the Satmar community when asked to do so. For example, a certain Rav had quite viciously attacked Rav Moshe, crudely denigrating him in his writings. Subsequently, this individual became involved in a criminal act. Knowing the great respect that judges and others in the legal system had for Rav Moshe, he asked for a recommendation that might ameliorate any punishment imposed on him. Rav Moshe went to great lengths to be of help.
I recall that the Rebbetzin expressed her dismay at this man's chutzpah. How could he possibly face Rav Moshe after what he had written about him? Rav Moshe answered, "What has one to do with the other? He came to me for help. Did you expect me not to help him?"
During the last years of his life Rav Moshe remained active as a posek. There were several months during which he could not write his responsa. Rav Moshe had sight only in one eye. The other eye was what we now call a "lazy eye," but since it had gone untreated, was not functional. He wrote bent over with his head very close to the written page. A bony spur in his spine made it impossible for him to sit and write. Often he had to dictate his responsa, and on such occasions he would carefully review the typewritten text before adding his signature.
One evening, while lying in bed and reviewing his daily quota of pages of the Talmud, he paused and remarked, "I have much to be grateful for. I am especially grateful that I have never had to retract any of my responsa." As all who knew Rav Moshe could testify, his unimpeachable integrity would have made him withdraw a responsum if he felt he had erred, but the certitude he had expressed even as a young Rav in Luban accompanied him all his life. It was not that he could not make a mistake—he did not. His preparation for a teshuvah involved such mastery of Talmudic sources and such attention to detail as to make it virtually impossible for him to err.
As we have already stated, Rav Moshe was the most modest of men. He did not expect anyone else to acknowledge his greatness, but did not fail to acknowledge it himself.
A few years before his passing, he had to have a pacemaker installed. I explained the reasons for this to him. During the day, when he was giving shiurim or writing teshuvos, his blood pressure was perfectly normal. However, a 24-hour cardiac monitor revealed that at night, while he was asleep, his blood pressure became precipitously low. It remained normal only when he was involved in Torah study. In the past, he had often balked at going to the doctor for a general check-up, but had always been willing to see a physician when he felt something amiss. Now, however, and quite uncharacteristically, he was reluctant to accede to the doctor's orders. I asked him to explain his hesitancy, reminding him that we had asked for consultation on the proposed pacemaker and all the physicians had agreed that it was essential. Several days passed, and he still had not told us he was willing to go to the hospital.
I finally confronted him: "Shver, this is not your way. You always make up your mind very quickly. Why is it taking you so long?" Rav Moshe finally broke his silence. "I know how unworthy I am. I know how little Torah I know, but I am also aware that if they are to pick seventy-one people to make up a Sanhedrin, among the seventy-one they most likely will pick me too. However, a baal mum [someone with a physical defect] cannot join the Sanhedrin. I am perturbed at the thought of doing something to myself that would make me unfit to join the Sanhedrin when Moshiach comes." I then reviewed the surgical procedure for him. I showed him some diagrams illustrating exactly what would be done. After listening carefully, he said, "Oh, well, that is not really considered a baal mum. Please make the appointment right away." We did so. Sadly, very sadly, he was not chosen. A Sanhedrin was not formed, because Moshiach did not come. But, Hashem willing, he will come and Rav Moshe will sit in the Sanhedrin.
Un soir, alors qu’il était allongé et révisait son quota quotidien de pages du Talmud, il fit une pause et déclara : « J’ai beaucoup de raisons d’être reconnaissant. Je suis particulièrement reconnaissant de n’avoir jamais eu à rétracter l’une de mes teshuvot. » Tous ceux qui connaissaient Rav Moshe pouvaient témoigner de son intégrité irréprochable. S’il avait senti qu’il avait commis une erreur, il aurait immédiatement retiré son responsum, mais la certitude qu’il avait exprimée dès ses premières années en tant que Rav à Luban l’accompagna toute sa vie. Non pas qu’il lui était impossible de se tromper — mais il ne se trompait pas. Sa préparation pour chaque teshuva impliquait une maîtrise absolue des sources talmudiques et une attention aux détails si rigoureuse qu’elle rendait pratiquement impossible toute erreur.
Comme nous l’avons déjà mentionné, Rav Moshe était l’un des hommes les plus modestes. Il n’attendait pas que les autres reconnaissent sa grandeur, mais il ne niait pas non plus celle-ci lorsqu’il en était conscient lui-même. Quelques années avant son décès, Rav Moshe dut se faire poser un pacemaker. Je lui expliquai les raisons médicales de cette intervention. Pendant la journée, lorsqu’il donnait ses shiourim ou écrivait ses teshuvot, sa tension artérielle était parfaitement normale. Cependant, un moniteur cardiaque 24 heures révéla que la nuit, pendant son sommeil, sa tension chutait dangereusement. Elle ne restait normale que lorsqu’il était plongé dans l’étude de la Torah. Par le passé, il avait souvent hésité à consulter un médecin pour un examen général, mais il acceptait toujours de voir un spécialiste lorsqu’il ressentait un problème. Cette fois-ci, cependant, et de manière tout à fait inhabituelle, il hésitait à suivre les recommandations du médecin. Je lui demandai d’expliquer son hésitation, en lui rappelant que nous avions consulté plusieurs médecins au sujet du pacemaker et que tous avaient confirmé qu’il était essentiel. Pourtant, plusieurs jours passèrent sans qu’il ne donne son accord pour aller à l’hôpital.
Finalement, je le confrontai directement : « Shver, ce n’est pas dans vos habitudes. Vous prenez toujours vos décisions rapidement. Pourquoi cela vous prend-il tant de temps ? » Rav Moshe finit par briser le silence. « Je sais combien je suis indigne. Je sais combien ma connaissance de la Torah est faible, mais je suis aussi conscient que si l’on devait choisir soixante et onze personnes pour constituer un Sanhedrin, il est probable que je serais parmi eux. Cependant, un baal moum [quelqu’un avec un défaut physique] ne peut pas siéger au Sanhedrin. L’idée de faire quelque chose qui me rendrait inapte à en faire partie lorsque le Machia'h viendra me perturbe profondément. » Je lui expliquai alors en détail la procédure chirurgicale. Je lui montrai des schémas illustrant exactement ce qui serait fait. Après avoir écouté attentivement, il déclara : « Oh, dans ce cas, cela ne constitue pas vraiment un baal moum. Veuillez prendre rendez-vous immédiatement. » Nous le fîmes. Malheureusement, très malheureusement, il ne fut pas choisi. Un Sanhedrin ne fut pas formé, car le Machia'h ne vint pas encore. Mais, avec l’aide d’Hashem, il viendra, et Rav Moshe siégera au Sanhedrin.