Rabbi Moshe Herson: Pnimi, Oved, Baal Menagen, Morristown, Aguch, Head Shliach NJ - RC Dalfin

this is a tribute to RAB who passed away yesterday giml the 23rd of Tavis t in the English date 2025 23rd of January was yesterday anyway I knew Robert hon personally I knew him before I went to hisa marown theab Yesa and I knew him afterwards and I knew him in the last few years so I could say that what I'm going to say today is personal observations personal feelings you take it you're leave it you can hopefully learn from it Rabbi hon came to kabad laich at about 15 when RAB Weinberg AB of Weinberg who traveled to Brazil in the in the Summers particularly I think to raise money for worked for the rash at the time and he brought different boys teenagers to study at the Yaba at bethford andine this was I think in 1949 1950 he came several months after the previous Reb passed away and he studied in the ISA pretty much from 1950 to 1960 it was 59 60 and that's where around then he started his work in in Newark we'll talk about that soon so you could say that you know the the bulk of his years were in and he symbolized aim in the true sense of the word people don't know this about him but he was a very big IID anidem he daved for hours he was a a masus he he thought deeply about ideas Inus and new and he was a very big balagan on the early records ofad there are a few solos that he has under records and if you listen carefully you'll you'll hear what we call anus adus an adal kite a refinement and this came way I see it from and his being a to and learning so we could say that bet that could have established here in America made Rabbi her that's that's understandably it came from parents it came from a background it was 15 years old yeah it wasn't just that he just popped up and he didn't have a background he had a background but it wasn't it wasn't it was wasn't leich was a different upbringing when he came to became leich the next point is that the Reb took him into his work into his inner circle way in the early years because he came from Brazil he knew Portuguese and the 1950s the Reb needed someone to translate letters uh to write letters rather to write letters in Portuguese so theb told who told him um asked him if he would do this and theb said something to the effect like you come with me in other words and and theb you know gave him instructions and the message was that what you read you have to forget because it's so private but there was no one else to to who could who could write at that time Portuguese and that's a very very significant thing and no one knew about this for years years people would now people you remember those left still that sometimes they would see him in a corner somewhere writing and they didn't know exactly what it was so that's a very significant thing as well you could say that he was chosen in a way to do this not just because he was from the only ones or the only one that knew how to write Portuguese but because his tea his nature was such that it was a private nature and I knew him he wasn't a man who you know flaunted his his and his uh and his knowledge and his writing he was a pneis more of a pis type of person an inner type of person a thoughtful type of person and we know that was that Way's inner people closest people were in a sense that way that they you know they had to keep kind of Secrets and not you know things were private because the re got mail and information from all over the world ban Kim another secretary was more was was like that with things that that connected ER or that people wrote to from Israel to to to the re politics and this and that so we see that there was an emphasis on individuals who of the more of the private quiet reserved nature that were very you know did this type work for the re the last few years I spoke to him several times his memory was as we say Nish kusher not bad and he he he said he'll He he'll agree to the to the interview excuse me as long as I sent it to him before so he could check everything he was so meticulous I think this was about what it was 87 88 read the last few years and with the help of his sons he he um he checked and he he made he made Corrections and kind of he approved what what I printed in the various books of mine based on some of the interviews I had with him but going back to uh the the early late 50s and 60s when he started in Newark at the time the nework had Yesa from 1942 that Rabbi um Rabbi Gordon started but uh later for whatever reason it became that dwindled the day school kind of dwindled and and in 1957 I think RAB is Jacobson uh started Yesa for old in Newark and this was at the time a very good Yeshiva and had some of the best 770 B go there there was also they sent to beia then fedman became the official Russa andab was like the official mashia talking about like 1960 or so his main main thing I heard from still talim students who were his students he was there Mia they had a reference to his ad kite and to his a and to n and he wanted to continue that and and I was thinking about this yesterday imagine how many students would have been impacted from such a person but what did they do he did like Al did with bovich the famous story The Who was a and Al tells him at a certain point in midlife to go and become a wagon driver in bashen kovitz you know from he became say is be from from being became about abouta H from from learning and rinsing out and then working on yourself and refining yourself he became a wagon driver it's a whole story and he listened told his wife his wife told him that since Al said it like a midlife crisis he didn't have the midlife crisis Al imposed it on him and all it was for one purpose to save someone who I think was assimilating to married or one of the and and brought back to chuva sorry the brought him back to chva and then when he he was already in the time of after passed away said you did your you completed your mission and you can go back and became a in a way I thought the same way here it was this individual who was to be a big Mas it would have had a big impact on B if he stayed in this in this line of of of schooling and teaching the Reb says no the Reb says I want you to be the man the administrator of the Yesa in Newark marown he puts aside he couldn't do both and he wrote about this to the and all that and the Reb said this is what I want of you and he listened and he did it when we were Yesa Mar from 79 1979 to 1981 once a year if us it wasat I'll never forget what he told us one time he told us that ROV told him that by the Reb the Reb's calendar changes every yat because that's the Y site and that's the day of theas that's when theb sets his agenda and calendar for the upcoming year fromat toat that was fromat in in Mars town and this was a very unique faing because didn't faing with us throughout the year was only once once once a year and it was very again special what he said and how he spoke and and he sang with us so here we see that DEA took someone out of his kind of pre and his best and and and brings him to another place and obviously that was the right the right thing because through him the the Yeshiva marown has taught thousands and thousands of through through him meaning the staff that he hired whether be one timef yovich was there in our time and and list goes on and today you have young people RAB Shapiro and RAB willhelm and guns and and and listen so pakari it's all very nice but all is because of Raa H and this ties into another Point ra people ask me about his you know personality and character he was a very disciplined person part of the pus that I spoke about earlier is is is disciplined organized he once asked me to they asked me wants to come he asked to come to talk to the and I did nothing I did it years later he said H did I pay you for it I said no I didn't ask him money and he says I want to pay you for it it was years later he still remembered that he he he didn't pay me for asking me to come to speak and he wanted to pay me for it he kept squore and and that that was him okay a certain type of a and then he became of course the the H to the whole state of um New Jersey under the directorship of Etc and there's over 60 institutions I understand it all started from that Yesa in Newark marown I would say marown I think he he told me they moved there 19771 a lot a lot of details but now is not the time for it so I'm thinking about his life other schim some other schim are more wild more chaotic and yeah they'll accomplish more buildings and bigger buildings and this and that that's one style rers had a very different style being very meticulous consistent organized and disciplined and because of this a person like David Chase and his boy and people like that gathered around him supported him and built a multi multi million doll edifice not just you know Marist toown and but tiway and many other things for years he didn't have lots of schlam under him okay during my days there was no lots of under him was one two three that's it the whole idea wasn't an idea that you know in the 70s yet it started kind of more in the 80s but from this center from marown the Yeshiva and I have such warm feelings such my best years were in maristan I always say that in the winter could be it could be sometimes two three weeks I wouldn't go outside except on Mi Friday where a friend had a van he took us to the place we did Mi we came back otherwise I was in Yeshiva we learned there we slept there we faang there we ate there we joked there we cried there everything was and having such a wonderful who I've spoken about several times was a tremendous plus to the entire environment but the environment itself that was created in Mars toown re hon is the one who made it happen okay someone has to pay the bills someone has to say this goes here this goes there and finally I knew Hon's family also from B park because his wife was a glatzer her his father-in-law I think was a I think was a b he owned a grocery store I believe the fruit store on 18th Avenue and uh was a very FR person my father told me he remembers once shopping there and he he gave him more than the amount my father said I didn't buy this and he said this is what I do so I make sure I don't you know cuz he used to weigh the and they still had those scales and he used to weigh the the the fruit for how much it cost he didn't want to cheat anyone a penny that was his father-in-law his wife Al Pearl just passed away a month ago pretty much a month ago and it's interesting you know they say sometimes when one spouse passes away the other one follows suit in the next several months or year here it was less than a month it's all from M he was 90 years old he left children and grandchildren and great grandchildren of blessing his soner is RA New Jersey who I know from childhood is some meni Mel who was a little younger I know him as well and his daughter I don't know but she met met she married K bman who I know also from Yesa wonderful wonderful family all going in the way ofab and and and and mitz of course and and reab Hon's way the P way on one hand when someone and he was I forgot to mention is he was appointed by the to be part of yesterday I saw the and a few other members of the were there um he definitely was in in the Reb's Camp you know he was chosen because of his style and his wisdom and and his quietness and his connections and I I remember you know my father and and his Partners they had a sweater Factory and by the water on First Avenue here in Brooklyn and my father came home on said Mosa Mosa was there mosa was a good friend of my fathers in the days in Yeshiva 58 59 60 you know they knew each other and they were good friends so I said what Dida come to you he said he came to ask for money for the Yeshiva you know you know but he had he he went way back he had connections with all kinds of people both in anash outside of anash and because of his personality they received him very warmly and his style was not to right away ask you for money but rather to befriend you and to to to once you're a friend and you see the work that we're doing to ask for support for the Yesa no may his M be blessed the family should all be consoled sh to the children and grandchildren and to continue in the ways and to to take everything that he that he stood for and that he left to to a higher level and to to to somehow incorporate more and more people in the institutions in the schas in the kabat houses in the Yesa and to and to ultimately bring mashia together with our and