Man at The Wall

- I grew up in a Conservative Jewish home. - I set the record for most absences from the Reform Hebrew School. - I never heard of the mitzvos. Never heard of 'em. - I really truly did not know what Judaism was. - My whole appreciation of Jerusalem at that point was going to the Wailing Wall. - Then I felt the tap on the shoulder. I turn around and he says, are you Jewish? - And he said, would you like to see what Yeshiva is like? (light dramatic music) - Three and a half thousand years ago, when Hashem told us to build a Mikdash, He did not say, build me a sanctuary so I can live in the building. God doesn't need a physical structure to live in. He's God. What Hashem wanted was for us to make a space in our hearts and minds and invite Him into our lives, so that we can have Godliness shine through us. What stood over here so long ago was only a testimony to that deep connection that existed between us and Hashem. As soon as that inner space was contaminated by hatred, jealousy, indifference and apathy towards one another, the Bais Hamikdash was destroyed. This Tisha B'Av, as we reflect and contemplate galus and geulah, what we have to think about is how to rebuild this structure. And that involves loving one another. Helping each other reconnect with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And there's no greater example than Rav Meir Schuster. Rav Meir stood right here, at the Makom Hamikdash, for almost his entire adult life, looking out for people, for wandering neshamos, and try to bring them closer to Hashem. That was the epitome of Ahavas Yisroel. Caring about another Jew. When we talk about Rav Meir Schuster and we try to describe who he was, it becomes glaringly obvious that it makes no sense how this person single-handedly inspired an entire generation to teshuvah. Rav Meir grew up in Wisconsin in the 1950's. He attended public school until he was 11 years old, after which his parents sent him to the local Jewish day school that was run at the time by Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twersky. Rabbi Twersky sent him to yeshiva two years later, and Rav Meir went to Ner Yisroel in 1960. If you were to walk into Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in 1960, and you were to look around the Bais Medrash, and you had to guess who is going to end up impacting an entire generation of Baalei Teshuvah, your last guess would be the shy, soft-spoken, quiet, reserved kid sitting and learning in the back of the Bais Hamedrash. How did this man, who didn't have the personality or the background, inspire and change so many thousands of people to teshuvah? - I met Rabbi Meir Zvi Schuster in 1966, I went to Ner Yisroel from 1964 to 1968. - Meir Zvi was the one who encouraged me to come to Ner Yisroel in Baltimore, and he was my vekker in the morning, about seven o'clock, he would be going from room to room, in his robe, and it was like, come on, Shloimy, get up. Get up, get up, Shloimy, get up. And he was, I tell you, he was an oveid Hashem. It was like, that was his mehus. - He had a special neshamah. That's for sure. I mean, his neshamah was, whoever needed help, he helped. And he did it in a very aidel way. Very gentle way. - He couldn't talk he was shy. Meir Schuster is going to go up to complete strangers and then talk them into going to yeshiva? I would say, it's impossible. He was so naturally an introvert. - When you saw him daven, you wanted to be a part of that. The way he looked up. He was speaking to Hashem. And maybe I have some misgivings, if I could've maybe listened in a little bit, maybe I could've asked, Meir, what were you asking Hakadosh Baruch Hu for? I think I probably would've heard that Hashem is my best friend. And I'm getting reacquainted. I'm sharing my life with Him. He's sharing His essence with me. And when you saw him daven, you wanted to be a part of that. And I felt, I was touched by just watching him daven. I became a different person because I saw Rav Meir daven. - I once heard a great story about the Rosh Yeshiva of Ponovezh, Rav Shach. When the mashgiach Rav Chatzkel Levenstein passed away, Rav Shach gave a eulogy and he said that he had never seen an oveid Hashem, someone who serves Hashem, like Rav Chatzkel. After the funeral, one of Rav Shach's talmidim came over and asked him, How could you say such a thing about Rav Chatzkel? The Rosh Yeshiva saw the Chofetz Chaim. The Gadol Hador. Rav Shach told him, he said, every person has a maaleh and in that maaleh he can be the gadol hador. Rav Chatzkel was the gadol hador in going against his nature. In our generation, the giant in going against his nature was Rav Meir. Rav Meir was not a natural conversationalist. He didn't like to talk. He only spoke if he absolutely had to. So when he would be at the Kosel and approach people, you can actually reduce his entire conversation to just two questions. Are you Jewish? And if the answer was yes he would follow it up with, would you like to hear a class in Jewish philosophy? That was it. And you sort of wonder to yourself, like, how could somebody convince someone else to take a class, bring him to a yeshiva, go to Aish, Ohr Somayach, Neve, with two questions. - We moved into the Jewish quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. I went down and went looking for a man who I only knew by description. And then I saw this tall lanky man, wearing a black suit and a black hat, bearded, and I walked over to him and introduced myself and I said, hi, I'm Michael Kaufman, I just moved into that apartment. I pointed to our apartment overlooking the Western Wall. And I said, I'm at your service. In the middle of our discussion, as I stood there, he did a complete about face and made a beeline away from me and towards the Western Wall. And there I saw a young man, about in his early 20s, with a backpack on, and he had his head on his arm, which was at the Kotel, at the Western Wall. And he tapped him on the back. And I watched as he engaged him in conversation. About a minute or two later, he headed towards me and without even slowing down he said, I'm going to Aish Hatorah, I'll see you later. That was my introduction to Rav Meir Schuster. - Can you imagine a person like this, who was as shy as can possibly be, going up to a with-it young college man or woman, and getting that person, persuading that person to change his direction in life and become a religious Jew? - Anybody who you would speak to would give you the same profile. He was not cut out for this job. It's not something that you would ever hire him to do. But he was somebody that cared. - It didn't come easy to him to have a conversation. It was very to the point questions, and there was no flourish. There was no side conversation. - He just wanted to get the job done. There was no ego. There was no shield between him and the people. It was just him saying, this is what I want you to do. This is what you need to do. It just attracted me because it was so truthful. It was so real. - One person told me, he said he went back to LA and he wasn't from, he got a knock on his door, 11 o'clock at night. It was Rav Meir. Rav Meir searched, tracked down his address, went to this unknown place, knocked on the door, and said, how are you doing. That's all he said to him. I just came to find out how you're doing. And the person was so astonished by that act of care and concern, that that reconnected him with his Judaism. And he found his way back. Rav Meir wasn't doing it as a technique. Rav Meir, he would genuinely remember this person, and wanted to know how he was doing. - The greatness of Rav Meir was that he made himself into a great person. - My family and I were truly blessed to have the zchus of becoming close with Rav Meir Schuster, as having stayed here with us for approximately one week every year, for almost 20 years. I was walking with him to shul one Shabbos morning, and I said to him, I said, I don't even know what we're supposed to do. I don't even know what we're doing here. And he stopped. And he never stops. And he turned to me and he looked me in the eyes and he put his finger on my chest and he said, do you want to know what we're doing here? I didn't answer him. He said, do you want to know what we're doing here? And I said yes. He said, Our job is to bring light to the world and God forbid darkness. That is what we're doing here. And he turned and he continued walking. And I said to myself, for the first time I understood who he was. He was on a mission. He was driven. He was driven to relight the flame of every neshamah that was in jeopardy or possibly could be lost. He was gonna spread as much Torah and light to the world as possible. And he thought and he knew that this was his mission and he certainly believed it was ours as well. - Do you know what's really interesting? What inspired Rav Meir to come out here every single day for 40 years is a story that you and I heard tens of times. The famous story with the Netziv. When the Netziv made his siyum on Ha'mek Shailah and She'iltos, he made a party for his family and friends and told them how when he was a kid, he was struggling with his learning and his parents were about to send him to learn how to become a shoemaker. But he begged them and he cried and he asked them for another chance. And the Netziv said, Imagine, had I become a shoemaker I would have come up after 120 to Shomayim and they would've asked me, did you learn Torah, check. Did you daven, check. Did you do mitzvos, check. Did you make chesed, check. Where are your seforim? I don't know about any seforim, I got shoes. The Netziv said, now, when I come up to Shomayim I can be proud that I fulfilled my potential. I'll show them the Ha'mek Shailah and the Ha'mek Davar. Rav Meir, when he heard the story he felt like he has to discover what is it that I have to do with my life. How can I do it? So he and his friend, Rabbi Chaim Sofer, they came to the Kosel here. And he wanted to daven to ask Hashem to open his eyes. - And I saw a guy in a backpack, you know, he looked Jewish, and I said to him, like, you know, Meir Zvi, let's go over to this guy. Maybe, you know, there are a lot of guys over here like this, you know, I've been here at the Kosel a lot of times and maybe we should do something about it. Let's talk to him a little bit. And we gave him a couple of yeshivos as a suggestion. And he said, that would be very very nice. Next two three times we did the same thing. I started up, you want to know a little more about Judaism, and stuff like that. Then about the fourth or fifth time he told me, let me try it myself. I want to try it. Go ahead Meir, I have no problem. So he started up and he goes over to the guy and, you like it around here? And it was very fazay, I don't know how you say it. But it worked. And he got him too. And that's from what I hear that's the beginning of the whole story. He just kept on going and going and going for the next 40 years. - The time was ripe. This was in 1970 after the Yom Kippur War. In Moscow, Eli Esses was beginning his kiruv. It was a world-wide revolution. - My parents didn't have much of a background. My father even less. And that kind of was typical for I think Americans back then. And that continued until my Bar Mitzvah. Bar Mitzvah was a very big event. My Jewish education ended promptly thereafter and I never put two together at that point that the Bar Mitzvah should be the beginning of doing mitzvos not the end of doing mitzvos. My parents didn't have a problem with me dropping it and I applied to a couple of universities, I applied to the Naval Academy. I got an appointment with the Naval Academy as well. And I was on ROTC program. So that meant that they paid my way and after four years in university I was expected to graduate as a commissioned officer and join the Navy. So I went to Israel to work on a kibbutz. And I was scheduled to be there for four weeks. Working in the morning, learning Hebrew in the afternoon, and basically having a great time meeting people from all over the world. During my stay on the kibbutz you were allowed to get one day off and to go wherever you'd like to. And I think my whole appreciation of Jerusalem at that point was going to the Wailing Wall. I went to the Kotel on an erev Shabbos, and I was one of the observing Jews. Trying to take it all in and staring at this wall that had been standing for thousands of years. And I got tapped on the shoulder by an individual I didn't know. And I turned around and he asked me, are you Jewish? And I said yes. And he says, would you like to attend a class in Jewish philosophy? And I was an open-minded person and I said, why not. I didn't have any other great agenda for that day and he said great. He says, come with me. And that was really the extent of the entire conversation. I don't know if he asked me any additional questions, but before I knew it I was in front of Rabbi Noach Weinberg zatzal and one of his famous 48 Ways to Wisdom classes, and I was all prepared to go on my way, but before I could leave the classroom, there was Rabbi Schuster. And he said, would you like to speak to the rabbi who just gave the class? And I said, I don't think so. And he said, come with me. They hustled me right in to see Rabbi Weinberg and he says, did you like what you heard, yes. Would you like to stay longer? And I said I really can't because I have a commitment to go back to the kibbutz. And he said, well, what about after the kibbutz? And I said, I think I would like that. I had a commitment to the Navy. And if you don't show up, you can go AWOL. And the Navy is very strict about those kind of things. There was a time when the pressure was so great, I was considering leaving and I had a conversation in the dining room with Rabbi Schuster. And I told him, I said, Rabbi Schuster, it's not right. I have a commitment to the Navy, to my country, and I have to go back. And he asked me, he says, well you know a little bit about Judaism now. He says, when did the Jewish people stand at Mt. Sinai? I said over 33 hundred years ago, thereabouts. So he said, your commitment to Har Sinai precedes your commitment to the US Navy. You make the choice. Rabbi Schuster was part of me staying in yeshiva the first time, he was part of my life in making sure I was taken care of when I was in college. It was through the family he set me up with that I eventually made a shidduch with, and it was just, as I said, a continuum that lasted me through life and I'm very much appreciative of everything he did and how much he cared. - Rav Schuster didn't see people he saw neshamos. It didn't matter what color their hair was, it didn't matter how many earrings they had, it didn't matter what they looked like. He wanted to give them a chance to grow, he didn't see where they were coming from, he looked where they could go. That's who he was. - When we started filming for the documentary, I had no idea how much of an impact Rav Meir Schuster had on the world, on the Jewish world. When I started reviewing the filming and the footage and the interviews, I saw that my kids' principal, Rabbi Shlomo Goldberg, was one of the people that was tapped on the shoulder by Rav Meir. And that blew me away because that means I was indirectly affected by Rav Meir Schuster. - I grew up in the Bronx, moved to New Rochelle, New York when I was a baby. Lived there till I was about 11 or 12 years old, when my family moved to El Paso, Texas. And I got Bar Mitzvah'ed in the Reform temple. We had to ask to be allowed to wear a yarmulke. My parents wanted me to wear a yarmulke when I was Bar Mitzvah'ed but in the Reform temple you weren't allowed. I lived there until I went off to college, in those years, when to a small college in north central Texas, just north of Dallas, between Dallas and the Oklahoma border called Austin College. I was a political science major. It was before school when I went to the head of the department to get my schedule signed off on for the classes that I would be taking, another gentleman came in, his name was Dr. Larry Fuesher. The head of the department introduced him to me and said he's joining the staff, and he's going to be teaching a course in Fascism, the Nazi Experience and World War II. So that sounded very interesting to me, I was fascinated by the topic and that such a thing would be taught. So I changed my schedule in order to be able to take that course. And then that year, in the month of January, the professors could teach any course that they wanted to, and it was for a month, and his course was a trip to Israel. So when I heard about that opportunity I grabbed it. There were a group of 14 or 15 of us. There was one other Jewish person in the group. A young man named Bennett, I don't remember his last name. And Larry took us on this trip to Israel. We arrived in Israel, we were actually staying in hotels in the Arab section of the Old City, because they were less expensive. And I remember that when I saw the Kotel, there's no reason why I should have any connection to it, I didn't know what it was, I didn't know what it represented, but when I saw it and I was there, I was really overcome with emotion. And I was approached by a tall man who asked me the question, are you Jewish? And would you be interested in spending Shabbos, having a Shabbos meal with a religious family, with an Orthodox family, and is there anyone else who's Jewish in your group? So I answered, are there other Jews, yes, Bennett. Would we be interested in spending Shabbos with an Orthodox family, I think so. And we took off, trying as hard as we could to keep up with him, because that man of course was Rabbi Meir Schuster, and he was a very fast walker. So we trailed behind him as he took us out of the Old City into Meah Shearim. That Shabbos was very special. I still have it etched in my mind. There was a purity in the house, which was extremely simple. Rabbi Schuster took us to Ohr Somayach, to learn with someone who was there, and that was the first Shabbos experience. I decided to wear a yarmulke when I was on the trip, because I felt very special being Jewish. But there was something that was awakened within me in terms of a desire to be Jewish. And that stuck with me even when I returned. I had thought about coming back, like I had said when I had left that I would be back, I didn't know when, I didn't know how, but I appreciated the fact that Rabbi Schuster wanted me to come back and that he would work things out if I ever did. When I got there, and it was again, a Friday night, so there I was at the Wall, and a tall gentleman tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and he said to me, Steve from Texas, right? And that was amazing, that he remembered me. He said is Bennett with you? I said no Bennett's not with me, I'm in a different group, I'm on an Ulpan. He said, you decided to go to an Ulpan on a kibbutz? I wish you would've come to yeshiva. So I said, well, this is what I started and what I decided for now. And he said, are you interested in spending Shabbos with a family? I said well that's actually one of the reasons that I came down to the Wall. I'm happy you found me. And I set back out following Rabbi Schuster to the same family, to the Finehandlers, who accepted me back like I was a long lost cousin. So I made the decision that, even though I hadn't been in touch with Rabbi Schuster for many years, that I was gonna go down and I was going to give yeshiva a real try. I walked into the yeshiva offices and of course who was there in the office when I came to enroll in the yeshiva? The person who was there was Rabbi Schuster. So he took a look at me, I held out my hands, I said, Rav Meir, put on the cuffs, take me away. I'm turning myself in. So he was very happy, he gave me a big hug. He worked out the enrollment. I became part of Aish Hatorah. And I guess the rest is history. - Many years ago I was standing with Rav Meir Schuster at the Kotel and I was having a conversation and talking to Rav Meir Schuster at the Kotel, you're probably mostly talking to yourself. Because 90% of his focus was looking over my shoulder to see if there were any potential targets approaching. And sure enough, while I was standing there, I remember this tall skinny kid with a backpack, with a long ponytail walking by. And Rav Meir Schuster hooked his arm into him. And he goes, what are you doing man? He said, what's wrong with you? He says, are you Jewish? He says, you don't have to be Jewish to be at the Wall. He says, you don't even know if you're Jewish? He says I happen to be Jewish. He goes, how do you know you're Jewish? He says, because my parents are Jewish. He says, really? He turns with him and he says, tell me about your parents. And he starts walking off. He says I was walking with him, I was talking to him, and I said, by the way, where are you staying? He says, I'm staying in the Christian Quarter. He says, you can't stay in the Christian Quarter, you're Jewish, you gotta stay in the Jewish Quarter. So he says, I'm perfectly comfortable there, I don't want to move I'm happy there. He says and I spoke to him and I talked to him and there was nothing I could do. He said so yesterday morning I was on my way to minyan, probably neitz in the morning, he says, I realized I was 20 minutes early. So I said, you know what, I'm going to go by the hostel where this kid is staying, and I'm gonna lean against the wall and say some Tehillim. He says, can you believe it, five minutes later he walks out. And I grab him by the arm and I said, you need to stay in the Jewish Quarter. You're Jewish you don't understand it. He goes, Rabbi, are you crazy? Have you been waiting here all night? What's wrong with you? And he said, okay. Take me where you want me to stay tonight, I'm happy to stay in the Jewish Quarter. He says, and Boruch Hashem, he's staying at the Heritage House and I have him booked at his first class at Aish Hatorah tomorrow morning. I said, the reason that happened is because he cared. He really cared. And I think God didn't want to disappoint Rav Meir Schuster. I really do. - I came from this home that was very Zionistic, and love Israel, and Jewish seders, and my husband came from more assimilated, and they didn't really do all that. - I was just brought up very Reform. Went to university, met someone who became my wife, - I was on the kibbutz, I had a lump and I did get it checked out and it really was a serious life-threatening illness, and when I was in complete remission, which was miracle after, you know, wonderful miracle thing, so then began my process of, okay, how do I say thank you? As I became more interested in Judaism, and Dovid wasn't, it was a very difficult process that I wouldn't wish on anybody. - I read The Source, the book The Source, I said wow. You know I should just go to Israel. I heard it's, there's a kibbutz, you can work on a kibbutz. So I went to Israel. - He left the kibbutz to go to Jerusalem. And then he's at Damascus Gate. - And then I heard someone running up behind me, I turn around, and I see this person, this guy in a scraggly beard and a hat coming up behind me. I just kept going. And then I felt the tap on the shoulder. And I turn around, he says, do you have the time? So I said yes, said what the time was. Are you Jewish? I said yeah, I'm Jewish. Would you like to sit in on a class on Jewish philosophy? I said, well, you know I'm going to this free tour at the Israel Museum, and I really don't want to miss it. He said no no, you won't miss it. You won't miss it, but you know, you could go to a class in Jewish philosophy if that interests you. I said yeah, yeah that sounds good. - And my husband went and he loved it. He was there for three weeks, taking classes that he was just like, because the one thing that my journey was, was very spiritual and heart. And my husband was very analytical, rational. So my believing in God, you know, he was rational. And then here he was at Aish Hatorah, they had classes that were intellectual. Rabbi Schuster was the angel that answered, like, how I was davening for Hashem to, I guess Hashem to tap my husband on the shoulder, and it was Rabbi Meir Schuster, who he sent. - A few months after I got married, the couple who was living in the Heritage House, which this is the women's youth hostel in the Old City, had to move out. And they were looking for a new couple. And we got chosen, my husband and I, and they thought we were a good choice. And since Rabbi Schuster ran the hostel, I got to see him very often. He'd come over and complain what a mess it was. And I'd see him, every Friday night at the Kotel, gathering people around him, trying to recruit more people to go to families for Shabbat, and we would get our assignments of eight people or so, who would troop back up the stairs to our house with us in the Old City. So I saw him then, and throughout the running of the Heritage House, again, he would pop in. But he would just stop in, or obviously we'd see him bringing in new people when he fished somebody else up from the Kotel or whatever. He'd come in the morning and take people to Neve. So he was just always in and out but he was always on the move. The guy did not pause. It's like, as soon as he dropped off one girl in Neve, he was back out there on the streets looking for somebody else. He had this sense of urgency and mission. There's so many people to save, there's so much good to do, I have to get out there and do it. And so, he'd always be like in and out again. And back out at the Kotel. Or back on Ben Yehuda. Or back wherever he was. He was just constantly constantly going. - I grew up in a little town called Willimantic, Connecticut, which has about 15,000 people, about 100 Jewish families in the whole area. When I graduated college I was watching TV and John Chashlo came on the TV, it was Channel 4 NBC. At the end of the report about the Yom Kippur War in Israel, he said, and Israel needs 10,000 volunteers to work on kibbutz to replace the soldiers who are on the front. That was the first time I had ever thought about going to Israel. I said, well I wanted to go someplace warm. I wanted to go someplace far away. And Israel fit the bill. I was there for about a year. And I had decided that I was going to go back to America and go into the Peace Corps. I had been accepted into the Peace Corps to go to Senegal. This was about February, in November I was supposed to go to Senegal. And I was leaving Israel, I was with a friend of mine who also ultimately became religious. And he had a car, so we drove to the Kotel. We parked the car about two o'clock in the afternoon and we walked around Jerusalem. We ended up at the Kotel, I wanted to say good-bye to the Kotel. And it was about eight o'clock at night and we decided it was time to get out of here, we're going to Tel Aviv. And I walked into the parking lot and there was a guy there, standing there with a snap brim hat, with a suit and a tie. He looked at me and he said, how would you like to meet a Rabbi? And I said, how old is he? He said 50. I said too old not interested. And then he looked at me and said, how can you not be open to your religion? This was in 1977 and my whole purpose in life at that time was to be open to experience. So that kind of like got me. And my friend, who was actually Greek, wanted to go see this Rabbi, and we argued a little bit. So we said okay we'll go meet the Rabbi. So we went to this class, Rabbi Schiller taught. Rabbi Schiller was probably, his class was the most impressive thing I had ever seen. He was like the smartest guy I had ever met. He talked about Plato and Aristotle and the relationship between the oral law and the written law. I didn't even know there was an oral law. And when we got up and out of there, Rav Meir was waiting for us. And he said, Rabbi Schiller would like to talk to you. So anyway, we went down to the office and Rav Meir stands outside the office waiting for us. And Rabbi Schiller said after a long conversation, well boys, will you stay here for a week? And I said, Rabbi Schiller, you know, I think you said some very good things for the Jewish people there, for the Jewish young men, but, you know, I'm going to Tel Aviv, then I'm going to the beach, then I'm going to the airport, and then I'm going to the Peace Corps, and besides, I have this ticket and if I lose my ticket in a week, I'm gonna lose the ticket. And he said, if your ticket is your problem you don't have a problem. He said I thought about why I wasn't gonna go back there, and instead I enjoyed talking about Jewish philosophy. He offered me to live in Jerusalem for three months and go to classes from nine to one in the morning. I thought why am I not gonna be there? I'm not gonna be there because I'm afraid they're going to brainwash me. And then I thought to myself, since I was 27 years old, if they can brainwash me in three months, they can have my brain. And I decided to go back for three months. And I have tremendous hakaras hatov, because my entire life and lifestyle is a result of this guy who I would probably never have been friends with, I would never have hung out with in high school, who was there every day, was simply the most persistent guy that you could imagine. Mrs. Schuster, when my first child was born Mrs. Schuster knitted a sweater for him which we still have. Which all of my kids wore. And which is a prized possession. And now I'm thinking about it, we haven't brought it up but now that I have grandchildren, it occurs to me now that we're going to use it for the grandchildren. I think that there's thousands of people like that, who are out there who did more Judaism wise because they met him and they ended up studying a little bit, and I think that was his purpose. - I keep on, to this day, bumping into people, and I'm always fascinated whenever I hear that somebody is a Baal Teshuvah, I always ask them for their story. And the amount of people who tell me, to this day, and new people that I'm meeting for the first time, that their experience began with Rav Meir picking them up, continues to astonish. - I grew up in a traditional Jewish family that wasn't particularly observant but respectful of all the holidays. I got sent to Hebrew day school, but I didn't go so much. And I had just started getting this feeling of, I gotta see the world before I go and lock myself in med school. So I got turned on to the idea, bought a three-month Eurail pass, and I was in Greece and I remember, I looked at a map, and I saw how close Israel was to Greece. And I'm going to go to Jerusalem. I headed to the Kotel. I'm going down to the Kotel, to the Wall, and this tall figure, wearing one of those black hats, suit, approaches me, and he looks at me and he says, are you Jewish? Really straight, really direct. He basically said, you're kind of wasting time. What are you doing? It's not productive. Maybe you should go to Neve, go for a few months, maybe go for a year, go through the cycle of the Yomim Tovim, of all the holidays, get a solid foundation, you know, you're just squandering time. So I told him, okay I'll go, I'll go for a month. A month, six months! I said six months, no way, two months. And he said, three months. And I looked up at him, I'll go three months, if you give me that hat. He said, deal get in the car now. So he took me to Neve, I stayed three months. And at the end of three months I saw him, perhaps in the Old City. I said, do you know what today is? He said, no what? I said, three months. He took off his hat and he gave it to me. So, that's how I stayed in Neve for three months. That hat was on top of all those tefilot, all that learning, all of those connecting with young people, all the walking back and forth in the sun, or the rain at the Kotel. That hat, was on the holy head of Rabbi Meir Schuster. And maybe he got refused when he approached people in it. Or maybe he had the simcha of somebody like me who came back to Yerushalayim and the Old City after a number of years, with a little kid, you know, with tzitzis on, like I did. And give him nachas. Like, this is your grandson. You have the kippah, and yeshivah ketanah. You know, you did this. You saved me, you saved him. So that hat is symbolic of the transition. So, yeah, that hat is really special and I feel really honored to have it. - I was born in a completely non-religious secular Jewish family. Religious Judaism was something I just never heard of, never knew of. I always felt strongly Jewish my whole life. When Yom Kippur came, I was one of the few people in my extended family that would fast. And then on Yom Kippur afternoon, I remember, at four in the afternoon, we would drive to my aunt's house to break the fast. I remember my mother's sister, my aunt, saying, why don't you eat something. I said, well no, I'm waiting until sundown. She said, no no, it's okay, you proved the point. You can eat now. In 1983, when my medical school class was graduating, a friend of mine, his name is Steve, we decided to take a trip around the world together, sort of a graduation trip. We were in Amsterdam, we were in Luxembourg, I guess the major concentration of time was gonna be in Israel. So when we went to Israel, we were backpacking, it was on Pesach. And we had our backpacks on, no yarmulkes. And this guy comes up to us, who from our perspective looked like he was from Mars. He looked like something we had never, from out of this world. He had a black hat, a long beard, some peyos going behind the ears, if I remember correctly, black jacket. And he came up to us and he said, are you boys Jewish? We said yeah, we're Jewish. And he introduced, his name is Rabbi Meir Schuster, he said, what are you doing for the last, tomorrow night, which is the last night of Pesach, of Passover? So my friend Steve and I looked at each other, said, I don't know, maybe we'll go see a movie or something. You know, we didn't have any specific plans. So he said, well how would you like to spend it with an Orthodox Jewish family? So I spoke to Steve about it and we said, you know what, for the cultural experience, like you might go spend time with an Indian family, or a Chinese family, just to see culturally, what they do, yes, let's, you know, we're Jewish. Might as well see what an Orthodox Jewish family does. So we agreed and we stayed overnight to the next day, because we just really enjoyed the conversations. It was the most intellectually honest and open conversation I've ever had. It was exuding integrity. I could challenge anything, I could ask anything, if I stumped him he would say it. There was no need to show an ego, defend an ego, defend an idea because it was his. So Rabbi Schuster had put us there by Rabbi Kasnett. And then, we ended up staying the whole next day and then the next night, which was the eighth day of Pesach. We left wearing yarmulkes and I made a commitment at that point based on the intellectual integrity that I'd seen in Rabbi Kasnett's home, and really the kedushah, not that I could have put a word to it at that point, that I would start keeping kosher from that point forward. And that was our first exposure to Rabbi Schuster. - I once asked Rav Meir Schuster, how many people did you approach? How many people do you think you sent to the yeshivas? And he was very hesitant to answer me. He said, I don't know. I said, you have to have some type of idea. I said, do you have a number? He says, more than five thousand. That's the first thing he ever said to me. And I'm sure it may have been a lot more, if you think about all the kids he sent to all the families, to all the homes, for all the Succos meals, for all the people he grabbed and sent in and out of different yeshivos, and how many that he had an effect on, one on one, I don't think anybody had a bigger effect. (dramatic music) - I grew up in Toronto, one of four kids, and, you know, I didn't go to Jewish school, I went to public school. I always say, my brothers' Bar Mitzvahs were more Bar than Mitzvah. We were Jewish, but really, my social circle, my decisions in life, really didn't have Judaism as a factor, in terms of where I was, if I was gonna go left or right, that being Jewish really wasn't a factor in that. So I went off to college, and I was studying communications, and my sister, my younger sister, she got Jewishly involved and she went off to Israel for a year, and became very observant. And she came back and I had just run a Christmas commercial for, I was starting working in radio, and I won a national award for a Christmas commercial that I wrote. I always say that my Jewish journey began with a Christmas commercial. Because after I won that national award, I decided, you know, I'm not married, don't have a mortgage, don't have kids, this is my time. So I got a backpack and decided to go off traveling through Europe. And before I left, so I said to my sister, you know, let's spend time together before I leave. Let's go out for lunch, or something. She goes, well why don't you spend Shabbos with me? So off I went for my first Shabbos experience, which was not exactly the most pleasant experience I had. I really felt very claustrophobic, and I really couldn't wait to get out of there. On Friday night, she had stacked the table with all these different rabbis, there was a whole Shabbaton going on, and I remember asking questions not because I wanted any answers, but because I had A for Attitude. So after lunch I said to my sister, I'm leaving. And she said, but but but Shabbos is not over yet. I go, but, this is nice for you, not for me. She goes, but but but, I go, nice for you, not for me. And, you know, because I had planned to go to Israel, so I was looking for a cheap hostel, and I found one, and it ended up being an Arab hostel in the Old City. And it was a scary place. So we were standing there, it's at night, it's raining, we're at the scary Arab hostel, and I was just like, okay, you know what, let's just check in and let's go see the Wall. Let's go to the Wall. I remember turning the corner and coming out to the Western Wall plaza, there was nobody there, because it was at night and it was pouring rain, and as we got closer and closer the Wall was all lit up, it was very magical, I saw there was one man standing there. He was one of the Rabbis at that Shabbos table that my sister dragged me to all those months before back in Toronto. So I went up to him and I said hi remember me? You know, my name is Laurie, my sister, you know, I was at this rabbi's house, and he goes, oh yeah, I remember you. Where are you staying? I said, I'm staying at this scary Arab hostel. How would you like to stay in an apartment with two Jewish girls? And they were attached to a school called Neve Yerushalayim. And my sister had gone to that a year before. You know what, at that point I'm cold, I'm wet, and I'm afraid to go back to the hostel, he drove, in the middle of the night, to this place, that was when Neve was in Bayit Vegan, these two terrific girls, who I think worked at Neve, opened up their apartment to us, gave us the guest room, gave us keys, and just said, come and go as you please. I ended up in one class, I went to one class, just to make them happy at the school. And I was pretty blown away. I thought my sister went to this Mickey Mouse school where they learn how to be good Jewish mothers, and make fluffy matzah balls. But I was very challenged, very intellectually, and spiritually challenged. You know when I think about it, I think about Rabbi Schuster, like, why was he standing there? There was nobody there? I'm telling you there was nobody there. It was pouring rain. You know, I can imagine going there when it's like, there's a lot of people there. It's Friday night, there are thousands of Jews, a lot of backpackers. I guess it was worth it just for one, just for one. - I grew up in a Reform household in suburban Boston. - I went to Sunday school, I went to Hebrew School, I had a Bas Mitzvah. I basically grew up in the American style of a Jewish life. - My father was considered a very Jewish guy within the Reform temple. He used to go every Friday night to services. He participated in the temple a lot, but, basically none of us were turned on to Judaism at all. - I really truly did not know that I didn't know what Judaism was. - I grew up in the public school system in Andover. And I went after that to Boston University. I majored in journalism. One of my motivations for becoming a journalist was because I had felt that I hadn't really come in contact with anyone that really had the truth in the world. I had gotten to a point of desperation. I didn't find anybody out there who I felt knew what life was about. I decided that I would come to Israel to see what a kibbutz was like. I was staying at a friend's house in Jerusalem and it was the middle of the summer and it was extraordinarily hot. And I couldn't get out of the house to even walk around at all. And after a few days inside, I got cabin fever and decided I have to see some of the sights before I go to kibbutz. So the most important sight anybody, any Jew knows this, is the Western Wall. - I think he went to the Kotel because that's what everybody does when they go to Israel. You go to the Kotel and you see what it's all about. And I think he just went to do the tourist thing of going to the Kotel. - So I came to Western Wall, and someone tapped me on the shoulder when I was there. And I turned around, and Rabbi Meir Schuster, I didn't know him by that name at that point, he said, are you Jewish? And I said yes I am. And he said, would you like to see what yeshiva is like? My reaction subconsciously was twofold. First of all, this'll make a great story as a journalist. Right, my experiences in yeshiva. And the other one was, I really want to go and show them where they've made their mistake. So Rav Schuster brought me to speak to Rav Noach Weinberg at Aish Hatorah, just up the stairs from the Western Wall. I actually was extremely impressed with the professionalism of the speakers there, and the logic of their arguments. They were extremely persuasive in their argument. They weren't persuasive enough to prevent me from going to kibbutz. I went to the program anyway. After an extremely disappointing experience on kibbutz after, I'm thinking five months or so, I came back to Aish Hatorah to learn. - When I got to be 16, my brother went to Israel to be on kibbutz. He invited me to come Pesach time, when he was on kibbutz, and he had already become interested in Yiddishkeit, in Judaism, but didn't push too much on me and took me to a Pesach seder here in the Old City by Yaakov Kleiman, and that was my only exposure to any religious Judaism ever, I think. And then I came home and never really thought about it more except for the fact that he became more and more religious and then started writing me letters. Two weeks into my semester in Emerson College in Boston, after having received many letters from my brother, I got the feeling that my brother was probably onto something smart. And I came to Israel. And basically never looked back after that. I never went back to college, stayed in yeshiva. I took Discovery when I first got here, and then just stayed in yeshiva till today. I've been here for over 30 years. - I have a family that I brought up here in Yerushalayim myself, and I have seven children and at last count the same number of grandchildren. My sisters, I have three sisters, two of whom became observant in this indirect way, through Meir Schuster. Both of them coming after my brother and I had come here. Both of them coming wanting to check out what authentic Torah Judaism was about. - Because my older brother was tapped on the shoulder by Rav Meir Schuster, and it changed his life forever, and in turn, he tapped my younger sister and her husband, then my younger brother, and then us. And today, I have a beautiful family, beautiful children, we just had Pesach with four generations. My mother, my in-laws, my husband and myself, all of our children and all of our grandchildren in one place together, celebrating Pesach, and it was the most glorious scene you can imagine and I do think that Rav Meir Schuster is sitting right by the Kisei Hakavod, smiling. Hopefully. Hopefully he knows, that he was the direct cause. - So how did Rav Meir manage to convince thousands and thousands of people to just follow him blindly to yeshivas, seminaries, and classes, with just a few words? You see, it's not about the words we say as much as who we are and how we come across to other people. Rav Meir was, in one word, real. He was authentic. He sincerely and really cared and loved every single Jew and that came through in the few words that he spoke. - Rabbi Schuster was maybe the ultimate salesman. The ultimate man to go out and find the clients. Find the customers. And just to get them just to take a little taste of Yiddishkeit. And I think he knew and trusted that once they got a taste of what was real, they would see a difference. - If Rav Meir can make his contribution, basically meeting people, given his personality, which was really very shy and introverted, then any of us can do something for Klal Yisroel that we don't think that we can do. - I'll tell you what Rabbi Schiller once told me. Years ago, and I've been very close to Rabbi Schiller, and from Ohr Somayach, the head of Ohr Somayach, and Rabbi Schiller told me, at one point, he said, that I would say that at least half the yeshiva came from Meir Schuster. And I heard the same thing from Rabbi Refson from Neve Yerushalayim. He said, at least half his yeshiva would be girls that he picked up. Rav Meir lost a child many years ago. He sent a shailah to Rav Elyashiv, who was the posek, the gaon of Eretz Yisroel. And he sent a shailah to him, asked somebody to go ask a shailah, if he has to sit shiva or not. Because, he says, it's hatzalas nefashos. And every minute I'm away from the Kosel, or away from doing my work, avodas hakodesh, so we're losing people, losing kids, so am I mechuyav to sit shiva? - Rav Elyashiv paskened that he has to sit shiva, but Rav Elyashiv was so impressed by the deep sense of achrayus that Rav Meir had for Klal Yisroel, he was so impressed by the care and the love that Rav Meir had for every Jew, that he decided to take out of his precious time and come be menachem avel Rav Meir. If Rav Elyashiv could take out of his time to go meet Rav Meir, all of us today on Tisha B'Av, can take out of our time, and meet Rav Meir, get to know who he was, where he came from, and what he accomplished. Hashem said about Avrohom Avinu, Avrohom Avinu loves Me so much, that I know that that love will translate itself into the teaching of Torah and mitzvos to his children. When somebody is passionate and goes out and teaches Torah and brings people closer to Hashem, that is a reflection of how close that person is to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. - Later, when he wasn't well, and he lost his memory, and he came to visit while he was losing his memory, he came with a shadow. Because he knew it was only a matter of time before he wouldn't remember. I think it was sort of like going around and saying good-bye to his friends, that he was afraid he would not remember, because he knew what the diagnosis was. And he came to this house. And he had to look at me for a minute, and he stayed with me for 20 years. And then he went, Sammy! And he gave me a big hug, he remembered me. But that was almost towards the end, the last time he came to America before he really wasn't well. It was terrible that he got sick so young. - My wife and I definitely wanted to go by and visit him and we knew that he wasn't as well, and we knew that he had a condition that was already diagnosed and we went to visit him. I think, the only thing he was disappointed with is that he couldn't be at the Kotel and help other Jews. And, we have to carry on that legacy. - I spent some time with him, thanking him for everything that he had done, expressing who I was teaching and what we had accomplished. The adults who I had been zoche to teach, and the children who I'm zoche to teach, and how that really all gets back to him. - He never stopped until he was stopped. Until that, the Ribono Shel Olam literally stopped him. - It was just a tremendous deep deep nachas that he felt, seeing me here, living in Lakewood, frum wife, frum children, member of a frum community, contributing to the Jewish people in so many ways. He felt a deep deep nachas and it gave me pleasure to see how much pleasure this man, who never wanted anything for himself, was able to receive and to enjoy from the fruits of his labor, which was the life that I was now living. - There was a time, after we were married, and when we had children, when we had, I don't know, seven or eight of them, that we went to visit the Schusters, so we went and we brought all the kids, I said, these are your grandchildren. And they loved it. They were, oh, Rebbetzin Schuster. They were just melting, because we were like, this is it. We have so much gratitude to you. - At our chasunah, in Yerushalayim, since my wife had also been met at the Wall by Meir Schuster, we thought it would be very appropriate for him to be an Eid on our Kesubah, and he, with a lot of simcha, participated in our chasunah. My wife, Robin, and I have eight children, of whom five are married. Those five married children have resulted in, at this point bli ayin hara 13 grandchildren. The fact that we are where we are with dedicated Jewish children and beautiful grandchildren, and an opportunity to teach Torah and to spread Torah in such a meaningful way, was really the dedication and the warmth and the mesirus nefesh of Rabbi Schuster. - When I came back to Israel in 1996, my oldest son was nine, I had a seven-year-old and a six-year-old, and when I would go to the Kotel and see Rav Meir, I would bring them, because Rav Meir would daven for the amud, he would daven and lead the service, and I would bring them in front of him, and they would stand there and I would say, this is how you daven. I want you to see the guy who made me religious, and the guy who you're here in Israel because of, and I want you to watch the way that he davens. Because again, it was this complete dedication. - Each of us shouldn't underestimate the impact we have on another person by just caring and sharing something that you deeply believe in. There are ways in which people touch you to help you come and become much greater than you thought you ever could become, and I think Rabbi Meir was one of those people who helped me see that. And all of us need to realize that we have plenty of assets available to us to touch the lives of other Jews and Rav Meir certainly is mechayev us, because he taught us that you just have to care. And if you don't care enough, then that's something that we have to work on, and that we can use him as an example. - He was driven by love of God and love of Torah and love of Am Yisroel. And if you care about people, you just want to go out there and share it. And that's what he was doing. - The zchus that he has is a single person in his generation yachid b'doro. - When I just look at him, you stand in awe of a man like this, what he could accomplish. And I always thought to myself, could you imagine if you had such a passion, you also have other things going with it? I mean, how much could be accomplished. I mean, what are you going to tell the Ribono Shel Olam after 120 years? Where were you, where was I? I mean, what we could have done. - It wasn't about the numbers. It was really, there was something greater than himself. And he was just Hashem's shaliach. He was just, he's that person along the way. Like sometimes we think like, oh, how can I reach out to a fellow Jew, because I don't have all the answers. Or, I'm not an extrovert. Or, I'm not articulate. Or, I'm not so wise and I'm not a rabbi and I'm not a professional. You just have to be somebody who says, do you want to stay with somebody, do you want to have a Shabbos experience with somebody? You want to meet a wise man? All the things that he would do. He was just the connector. You don't have to be the person who takes a person from beginning to end. - I was, I was a side person. But, you know, sometimes you have to do something, you do it that's all. Kiruv is the most important thing in the world today. Because we're losing so many. It's the most important thing. So it's imperative that you do kiruv. To reach out, to try to help somebody. (bright music)