Preparing video...
0:00 / 0:00
Tribute to Reb Chaim Meir Lieberman
761 views
Categories:Torah/Chassidus
Comments
Transcript
Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
Shalom this is a tribute to a good
friend mayor benal
liman I'll share some
personal
Recollections um in no way is this a
full tribute and biography just a few
ideas that uh hopefully are will beis
and uh for the family and friends of
this uh
great may as we called him or
may I first met him over the
phone back in the
1994 95
96 this was after giml thas and I wanted
to do something for the Reb and I wrote
a book called conversations with the Reb
a collection of 14 personalities from y
Shamir to Professor Broner Dr
torski and
others and uh pretty much it was a
Verbatim you know question and answer
interview style
book and through Harvey learner a mutual
friend he connected TOA mayor who
printed the book for me and distributed
it that was my first contact with him I
didn't really know him he's uh you
know over 10 years older than I
am but I got to know him once I moved
back to New York I was sumed back by the
and by the meaning by the
Yeshiva Yesa in 1996 from Los Angeles
and I came back and uh spent quite a bit
of time with him in his burrow Park
store gui's books which he bought I
believe from no
garari and it was off off neutri Avenue
on 40 I think 7th
Street and um I would go and talk to him
and meet him there but I want to tell
you something amazing that happened to
me just yesterday because I was
questioning you know whether I should
make this tribute not knowing him you
know that well and all of the historical
aspects of his life so who am I to make
tribute for him but the Reb gave me the
answer yesterday you might think it's a
little silly but let me tell you what
happened I'm finalizing a a book called
The Reb's
advice uh this is includes
that those issues that I of the Reb's
advice that I put out years ago it's out
of print and now I've added much more up
till the including the last volume
ofes KES number
32 so yesterday I'm sitting and in
volume 32 I look and I'm translating
those excerpts of letters that are of
interest you know practical in things of
interest for people and lo and behold
right in front of me I see the
name mayi
liberman and um I take a look and it's
to him while he was a in 1977 in Cape
Town South Africa which he told me about
once we didn't speak much about about it
and this was a letter to him uh he asked
the rebba about the kasas of the mikah
there and the rebba said he should
consult Rabbi eloi the chief Rabbi of
South Africa who happened to
beid coming from the city of duits and
um and he should speak to him about the
details and I said I don't believe this
here it is a day after he was buried
yesterday was Monday he was May was
buried Sunday he passed away shab
I said it looks like that e manai is
telling me dolphin you uh make this
tribute for K mayor so here I
am
anyway there a few things that I heard
from him and that I know about that some
might not be aware of you know he grew
up in B Park his
father was originally not a he was a
and um through meeting the I think in
Tash s he became more part of laich and
then he married his wife who also had a
Shak to
laich and um the family was raised here
he became of course arar rashin over's
partner they were Partners in the meat
business hence rashin liberman you know
uh that's the way it was originally
called I think later was changed to to
aon's meets what
ever and uh growing up here iner he
learned at the or Yakov naric local
Yeshiva which wasn't just for naare it
was for many others and from there he
went on to uh the Baba I believe in
bford and Dean and then
later um I think uh Ocean
Parkway but the point is that uh he had
a very good grounding in in the general
Community here and I say this because
later
on in the late 70s and early 80s his his
home was always known as an open house
and still is a very open house but at
the time when a mle VOR um the former
sat became AER was pursued actively as
we know uh by some uh you know wild kind
of
sat who uh didn't like what he did
or at least accuse them of doing uh
things that they felt were wrong um he
needed a safe haven because he had to
leave Williamsburg or Monroe wherever he
was it was literally dangerous for him
and he was with mayor R mayor provided
for him and his family a safe haven and
this is a very important piece of
history and also reality in other words
he he he felt a second home at the home
of and this wasn't only for R mendle the
Mendel also found a lot of comfort
easygoingness with him and why because
he was such a person was an easygoing
person my experiences talking with them
and sitting with him was
always
easygoing you know he was a highly
intelligent and by the way he was a big
a very leared person my last
conversation was him with him was before
sukus this year I would always by my
little V from him for years and this
time he told me about I believe her had
come heard about knew his father or
grandfather maybe grandfather in Pand
and he told me some some some things of
conversations between HPR her and K
Mayer about his I think
Z so um he himself in his own right was
a was a great as he
said and his easygoingness was very very
um inviting you know it was very
inviting you could feel comfortable
sitting and talking and laughing and
um that itself made it very comfortable
for the talim ofel and others to to kind
of transition into being King laich in
that beautiful comfortable easygoing
environment and because he came from B
Park you know he was raised here and his
uh father was not originally aab I don't
know if he actually became an actual I'm
not sure but he had a a reca a
background of understanding these people
and this was very very important for
them at the time and helped them uh
become who they became later in
life another thing that uh people aren't
so aware of is that he was a teacher of
gor in bka girls high school and my own
daughter was one of the students my
oldest daughter I have five um six
daughters and a boy and my daughter
would come home raving raving about
Rabbi liberman's gamarra class and you
have to understand my daughter wasn't
the top students and
and not all classes was something that
she you know could relate to or
appreciate but the G Class she said t
she said you know I want to learn more
gamar he teaches it so well and he lets
us ask and we dialogue and he was oh
easygoing you know he wasn't you know
taking maybe he was taking attendance
but that you know uh
dictatorship and discipline and
rigidity he didn't that wasn't what he
gave the these girls and and uh I I I
remember like it was yesterday how she
came home you know telling me how she
enjoyed so much learning with him the
gamar and she wants a little more gamar
and mind you you know this wasn't you
know B Rifka turning girls into uh Bim
and you know gamorra students it was to
give them a taste of what Ackle piece of
gamorra is which she did so well and um
this of course is going to uh be
something that uh will be remembered by
many of us students throughout uh years
who he uh merited teaching uh gamar so
um it's something that uh personally I'm
thankful to and uh collectively as a
community um he was the gamar teacher
one of the gar teachers at bka another
point that comes across as a tribute for
his Nish
is uh of late he replaced his
father-in-law Rabbi
hes gansburg as as one of the members of
the organization and he was on the board
and you know being on the board of such
an organization I believe with 170
institutions under them in the greater
New York area under T there's a lot of
issues that come up you know it's just
the the the nature of the Beast as we
say it's just a fact that you know
people have and same people are opinions
are different and he was someone who
educated uh many of these um issues and
um uh I wouldn't want to be in his
position but his temperament was such
that made him a right candidate for this
type of
activity um to be able to see both sides
and to make decision decisions sometimes
it's not a decision you know one one
party liked but nevertheless he was fair
he both he didn't take sides and um he
was a good person for the job so uh
that's is also a great
hus there's much more to say but we'll
leave that for others this is my little
H was my little
contribution to a a giant of a a giant
of a person person who built such a
beautiful wonderful home um with
children who are uh
and others and the is that his should
have an alah and the family should have
only SIM from here on and should go in
the good ways that he showed and lived
and had an open home one last thing I
remind myself is he was a father to many
balich Chua families in Kon
Heights some of them literally he Mish
took them M and had married them off
helped them get married mared and then
supported them and was there for advice
and Shalom Bas he was one of those uh
Mish inight one of those families that
was you know very very wholesome and
healthy for many of these people so all
around um he'll be missed but I'm sure
through the good work of his children
and grandchildren an extensive family um
they'll they'll continue the
work of um of influence and then and and
goodness his house was a
247 home okay um and this is something
that um we can learn from and should
learn from they we should
help together with our all and
all only have