There isn't much someone like me can say about Reb Meilech. Yes, I spent some time at the Yeshiva in Morristown and attended his farbrengens, but there was so much that the average bochur / yungerman didn't "get" about Reb Meilech. How BEYOND any of us he was.
Despite being the kindest, most gentle man you'll ever meet I was afraid to approach him, such was the awe one (me) felt for him. But even that average guy can know that Reb Meilech cannot be replaced. That he was a חד בדרא ממש. His vast knowledge of ALL facets of Torah. ALL means ALL, not just Yeshivishe mesechtos or popular topics in Halochoh or Aggadah. ALL means ALL of Torah. Nigleh, Chassidus, Kabbolloh. And most of all his Chassidishe bittul. He was in his own mind a simple Jew, a chossid of the Rebbe. Nobody special. He did all he could to avoid the spotlight. You had to twist his arm and beg him to come farbreng in places like BP or Monsey. He simply didn't believe that anybody wants to hear what HE has to say. He just sat in his office and learned. And during seder chassidus he sat in the beis medrish and learned. That's all. Thankfully he did agree to work on חסידות מבוארת these last few years, and they say that there is much Chiddushei Torah from him, written anonymously or under pseudonyms in various קובצים.
[You might say that Lubavitch is at a disadvantage because of people like him... i.e. that the velt doesn't realize and recognize what Chassidus is.] You won't see obituaries on YWN and VIN because וואס פארשטייען זיי אין א מיילעך צוויבל? But here and there - especially during farbrengens in Yeshivah "נאך משקה", and if the situation called for it - he'd reveal a little bit. Like repeating קצות word for word by heart. They just don't make yidden like that anymore. Here was a bochurel from a Galitzyaner home who "by mistake" fell into Lubavitcher Yeshiva in Lod, because they lived nearby and his father, a Bobover Chossid, wanted a "Chassidishe Yeshiva." but he became one of the greatest. If that's not a lesson in Hashgochoh Protis what is? I'm rambling. Sorry. חבל, חבל מאד, על דאבדין.
Below we see Reb Meilech (during his sheva brochos, perhaps?) with his wife's zeide, his shver's father, the venerable Karliner Chossid Reb Avrohom HaCohen Blesofsky o"h.
Shturem
COL beings המבשר article
תמונות מחייו
פרופיל - מיוחד בדרא
Neve Chabad
An obituary from Lubavitch.com, Chabad.org
BeChadrei
