Loved By All - And Loved All

(RSC and RSB z"l dancing at a Chasunah)

Chaim Berlin Tragedy commenting on Circus Tent: יש קשר

Hirshel Tzig: I honestly don't know why people are picking points with Rav Shmuel Berenbuam zt"l when it's still the week of his shiva. The man was a total anav, tzadik and gaon. He hated falshkeit and was a true Ohev Yisroel. He avoided all politics like poison. There are not too many people like that in the Torah world. I know of one yungerman who is today a big lamden and a menahel himself who went for a farher with Rav Shmuel 30 years ago. He said they spoke in learning based on the Ketzos, and he got the impression that Rav Shmuel knew the entire Ketzos "cold," be'al peh, backwards and forwards. That's just the Ketzos. What about other meforshim and shas. The bottom line is that Rav Shmuel Berenbaum loved all Yidden, as we can see with the love and mutual respect between Rabbi Ebert and Rav Shmuel even though Rabbi Ebert had chosen the derech of Chabad.

I once heard from an old-time talmid who learned at the Mir that he was once baby-sitting one of Rav Shmuel's younger sons. He couldn't resist taking a look at what the Rosh Yeshiva had in his refrigerator. Guess what? Almost nothing. I think he said he saw a bottle of milk and that's about it. The man lived with nothing, just lived for learning and his yeshiva. He would take the geshmakste walks on his own down Kings Highway with his eyes sparkling and his kapppote unbuttoned, and he could be seen taking it all in. He would always acknowledge anyone who said "sholom aleichem". He hated BS. I once heard him talk at a vort where he basically told the choson that he was a total jerk and baal gaaveh. What could they do, who would argue when Rav Shmuel said it in such a sweet and self-effacing way. A big mystery was why he always wore his hat slightly at an angle; in CB they would have assured this, but it seems the frum Rav Shmuel could not let go of his dapper side from his youth. He was showing that he was still a human being who liked to wear his hat "his way."

Anyhow, he lost two sons bechayav. One, Leibel, was into kiruv and left a family in Bnai Brak. Rav Shmuel spent his last few years being with them in Eretz Yisroel for Yom Tovim helping to marry off the yesomim of his son. And the real tragedy that few seem to recall happened about 32 years ago on a beach in Eretz Yisroel, when one of Rav Shmuel's sons (I do not know his name) who was learning at the Mir in Eretz Yisroel and was a close friend with the oldest son of RAS, Rav Mordchai Zelig Shechter, who is today the new mashgiach at CB, when they were strolling down a beach in Eretz Yisroel together and the light was not so good, (either early morning or evening) and they were spotted by an old Israeli civil guard who ordered them to halt. There was a mix up, and the guard fired his rifle at them, and Rav Shmuel's son was shot and killed. It was in the papers. The guard was an older yid. This was a time when there were attacks by the PLO from the sea, so everyone was nervous, and Rav Shmuel's son became the korban then. As for RAS's son he was ois mentsch for a long, long time from this true tragedy.

Rav Shmuel was also very respectful of RAS. In the 1970s and 1980s there were many times that he was seen coming to meet and talk with RAS in his office. The two men respected each other. And when RSC was booted out of CB, Rav Shmuel and the Mir made sure to welcome RSC and give him a shtender by the mizrach vant any time RSC davened there for the Yomim Noraim and other times. Only Rav Shmuel could give kibud melochim to RAS, and at the same time warmly welcome RSC to the Mirrer Bais Medrash. Klal Yisroel has lost a Gadol in Chochma, Pikches and above all, pure old fashioned Heimishe, Litvishe Mentschlichkeit! So, as I said, Rav Shmuel was a true tzadik who went through a lot. He lost two golden sons in his lifetime and I am sure that there was more tragedy in his life. No one should be saying anything bad or suspicious about him or his motives.

Yehi zichro boruch!