Journey to Poland 2024: Warsaw ; The Warsaw Cemetery

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com okay we're uh we're going to try this uh it looks like the severe weather is slowing down so I'm going to speak now 5 10 minutes this way we don't have to do it there in the rain also hasem we're going to pray within 5 10 minutes it's going to stop anyway and uh at the Kev we're going to save you know the real core information but now I'm going to give you a background where we're going this is the warso cemetery it is one of the largest cemeter Jewish cemeteries in all of Europe and in the entire world there are more than 250,000 marked Graves and mass Graves of the victims of the wor Setta so my great-grandfather Z who is the r of the city of Sak in all likelihood this is where this is where where he's buried let me tell you the names of the that we're going to visit here number one theas we're going to be at his C since if you see a random safer in a sh and you don't know who it's from in all likelihood it's from AR La since and you want to see what a go he was in his dying words he says that anybody who helps publish his safer you know he promises great yeshu so now he is the most published author of any of the because everybody's everybody wants a piece of the suula so we're going to the Kev of R AR number three rakov gunite theer Yakov rakov gun Chief Rabbi of Warsaw from 1870 to 187 four and then two of the most notable alltime great then and who are they were both R in and they're buried next to each other I want to tell you a little bit now about the NV and about R the NV was born in 1817 in the city of Mir his father was rakov Berlin who a well-known at 13 and A2 this is very important history to know the NV becomes the son-in-law ofer's son so you have the V his student was rer his son was and his son-in-law is the nowan started the his son took it over at 13 and a half the Berlin becomes a son-in-law he's so to speak the AA parent to lead the biggest y in the world however the problem was he had an older brother-in-law because gave the older daughter to by the name so when ofin passed away in 1849 El the first son-in-law is the top rashash then is second rashash but only 4 years later the oldest son-in-law had an untimely passing and the NV now takes over the manle of the most important Yeshiva in the entire world the mother of all yeshivas the vagan Yeshiva all yeshivas today are offshoots modeled after thean yiva now question I'm going to ask an opinion question when the N became the rash do you think it was uncontested or contested do you think it it was unanimous that the becamea it was contested you know who contested it the B the Basi says I'm the RV and brisk and he contested the appointment of the it went to a of of Minsk insector then and only the NV will run the Yesa whereupon the NV became the leader of world jeury that was the result of the then a new movement began a open expression of love for the return to was an active member of now many went to the n's she not everybody was sold right away for example would say what sold him on the's approach to learning they say you know the and were Polar Opposites the nv's opinion was in order to learn one blot of gamar you need to you need to know the H you can't learn a blot if you don't know the whole when you learn the whole you can understand one blot said you know how to learn the whole when you learn one blood of gamar and you get to the bottom of it and you cry you get to like the the core of the the blot you'll know the H they had ex polar opposite approaches and at first was not sold on the nv's approach one night after midnight the NV comes into the B and as a b or a young man was delving into a comment of the rashbam and theim goes over to the and he says rebbi you know I'm having a hard time with this this rash and the says listen to this do you know how many I had to visit to understand this rashbam think about that statement the says do you know how many I needed to visit to understand that rashbam now I like that statement cuz that statement really endorses our trip you know because many people would say aren't there better things you could do with your time maybe maybe it's better to sit in the it's hard to argue with that but you see even a great sadic like the in order to understand the depth of he had to visit multiple to pour out his heart in fact he told his student r meler that any day that he can he doesn't cry when he says he's not able to be mades in his learning so this was the the was a tremendous mmid I'll tell you he uh when he got married he went into a small room in vagan and he learned there day and night for 20 years so they came to the NV and they say is it true that you learned 20 hours a day said no it's not true I only learned 16 hours a day but I learned 16 hours a day Friday and shabas and ER I didn't miss one day as the famous story of the goes once came to the and the says do you know what learning is said yeah do you know what it means to be a Masid what rebi then says a Masid eats when it's time to eat sleeps when it's time to sleep learns when it's time to learn you ever notice in many yeshivas the hours between 11:00 p.m. and 1: a.m. are packed how bad at 9:30 when the S starts in the morning maybe that's not the most glamorous time the Masid learns when he needs to learn when he's supposed to learn he sleeps when he needs to sleep he eats when he needs to eat now let's come back to the uh V yiva remember the B Hali was appointed I wanted to be appointed rashash of Thea and the gum said no it belongs to the but the briskers eventually got into valan here's how they did it leave it to the briskers to figure out way how to get into vajan the NV had a son-in-law Ral Shapiro Ral Shapiro had a daughter this is the grand daughter of the NV the nv's granddaughter married Sal so the B the Tata the father he couldn't get the job but now his son is Arab parent to take over Thea you hear this so the bivi couldn't get the job his son is the married the grand daughter of the and brisker starts to give in the Yesa to the point where the and wereas in fact there was no decision in the Yesa that was made without the participation of R salek so he started giving Shir on theiva in 1880 at 27 years old and his shm gain him Garner for him World ACC claim he taught thousands and thousands of um who many of them became he gave she and for 12 years now in 1852 this is also very important we're going to talk a little bit about the history of the V Yeshiva and when we finish the rain will stop by the way the in his second marriage married the daughter of the you hear this the married the daughter of he was 30 years older than her she ran a good chunk of the Yeshiva in Berlin you ever hear the the Yesa K in Berlin Kimberlin was the son of the from his first marriage and his daughter from his first wife married Rafal Shapiro and through and their daughter married Rim salv his son from his second wife was R mayor Berlin who later later changed his name to Mayor Baran Berlin to Baran Baran University is named after the son of the nav mayor Baran now 1852 the ISA is under tremendous pressure to include secular knowledge in the curriculum that they should teach Russian and Russian culture the NV is getting older he's planning on going to is because you're probably wondering friends what country are we in are we in uh bellarus we're in Poland so how did the NV end up over here the rashan let me explain he was planning on going toel and giving over the running of Thea to his son R Berlin and his grandson R salek but on a Thursday morning the 5ifth of Shad in 1852 the government came and because they did not allow as part of the curriculum the uh Russian culture and knowledge the government closed the V yiva and everybody had to leave all the Tam had to leave and they're looking there's still there's one person remaining in the Yeshiva the NV the NV was there but he fainted they banished the NV from vilna he figures okay he's going to go to Minsk and then from there he went to wara and from there he was going to go to AR Isel and fulfill his lifelong dream but when he got to Warsaw the NV had diabetes he had a stroke here in Warsaw he lived for a year and a half but it was no life and the day before the P of the NV he turns to his son and he says my son many G say they don't want to be eulogized when they die but that's wrong it's wrong to say that if kazal say that a hpid does something for the mace how could we be smarter than kazal therefore we are not authorized to forgo a hesped but how long the hesped has to be you'll give me a short hesped and I ask of you that a um after the short hesped everyone should learn a few blot of gamarra instead of the HP and that will bring me K in G then taught t for 46 years he was 76 years old when he died Berlin said at the Leva that the Y could brings that when the first B mikdash was destroyed the young Kim went up to the roof of the B mikdash they took their keys in their hands and they said we were not to be proper treasurers they took the keys and they threw it heavenward and a hand came down from heaven and accepted the keys from the Kim says the son of inan when Vin closed the NV came he threw the keys of Alan up to the shamayim and God accepted them says the did not have to close the he could have allowed them to learn a period or two of Li but that would have been a slippery slope and at first it would have been a period or two and then ultimately there would have been a period a period or two ofes the understood that that he needed to close Yesa so that other yeshivas throughout Lithuania and Poland could spring up in the age-old tradition says if not for the who knows if we would still have t today says about the we say for closing the okay so we're going to head in briefly into the uh Cemetery we're going to visit these you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by Torah anytime.com