R' Gershon Liebman and the Power of Temimus
After the war, when R' Gershon was still in his prison clothes in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp, he asked the joint distribution committee for a building, so that he can open a Yeshiva. A Jewish American army officer was in the camp to help the refugees. He saw R' Gershon sitting alone in a building, and he asked him about himself. R' Gershon explained that he was building a Yeshiva. “Where is the Rosh Yeshiva?” “I am the Rosh Yeshiva”. “Where are your Talmidim?” “I’m the Talmidim”. The joint agreed to give him funding so he can feed the refugees daily.
They swarmed to him; Bachurim and young men, to get three meals in his building. After 3-4 weeks, he said that if you want to continue eating, then you have to learn Torah here. So ¾ of his crowd left him. From the few that remained, he started his Yeshiva. When he reached 40 Bachurim, the “joint” warned him that they would discontinue their funding if he accepts more students. He disregarded their threat, and soon he had 80 Bachurim.
He didn’t care about the “joint” leaving him, since he had Hashem. He started raising money. He found out that there were Jews in Morrocco who needed a Yeshiva, so he traveled to Morrocco. To reach the small towns, he had to ride a donkey. He didn’t always do well with money, and during certain periods his Yeshiva was extremely poor. Nothing stopped him. תֻּׁמַת יְּשָרִ ים תַנְּחֵם משלי יא ג He went with Temimus.
Bitachon and Mesirus Nefesh; we just do our best, and Hashem will help. With time, he had several Chashuva Talmidim. R' Elya Rotnemer Zatzal became deeply attached to him, and because of his previous connections with French high-society, he caused the Yeshiva to become millionaires, with Hashem’s help. I spoke to someone who used to work in their offices, and he told me that they had 100 million dollars, for sure. There is a famous story where the Yeshiva bought a building in a city in France where they wanted to open up a branch. They didn’t have the necessary money, which was a prohibitive amount (hundreds of thousands of...
