Tribute to Reb Chaim Meir Lieberman

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