Rabbi Moshe Feinstein: Sensitivity and Law
Rabbi Moshe Feinstein was one of the greatest halakhic decisors and heads of Torah academies of his time. His Torah greatness was primarily known through his halakhic responsa, collected in the volumes of "Iggerot Moshe." He was revered by the Torah giants of his time and tens of thousands of Jews.
Rabbi Feinstein was born on the 7th of Adar 5655 (1895) to Rabbi David Feinstein, the rabbi of the chasidic community in Uzda and a descendant of the Vilna Gaon's family. In his childhood, he studied under his father and acquired proficiency in the three Bavot (Talmudic tractates: Kama, Metzi’a, and Batra). Before his Bar Mitzvah, he began studying at the Etz Chaim Yeshiva in Slutsk, under the Gaon Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer. In 1910, he was sent with a group of the yeshivah's best students to establish a yeshivah in Shklov under the leadership of Rabbi Pesach Pruskin whom Rabbi Feinstein considered his primary teacher throughout his life. At the age of seventeen, he was already proficient in the entire Talmud, and by nineteen, he was well-versed in all four sections of the Shulchan Aruch with their commentaries. In 1916, he was appointed rabbi in his hometown of Uzda and after the first World War, he was extensively involved in releasing agunot (women whose husbands had disappeared). In 1921, he was appointed rabbi and head of the rabbinical court in Luban, a position he held until 1937, when he arrived in the United States. Shortly after his arrival, he was appointed Rosh Yeshiva of Mesivta Tiferet Jerusalem in New York, a position he held for forty-nine years until his passing on the 13th of Second Adar, 5746 (1986).
Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetsky of blessed memory once met his friend Rabbi Moshe Feinstein of blessed memory, who was in an extremely elevated mood. Rabbi Moshe told him that on that day, he had withstood a test sent to him from Heaven: “A few months ago, I served as a judge in a rabbinical court case, and after I ruled in favor of one of the parties, I received a phone call from a friend of the losing party. He rudely accused me of erring in a matter of basic law and claimed that the ruling was invalid.
Today, I was amazed to see that same person who had offended me in such a disgraceful manner in my home. It turned out that he had come to ask me for a certification to be a ritual slaughterer. My first thought was to expel him from the house but in the end, I decided that since on Yom Kippur I had forgiven everyone who had offended me, I was not allowed to hold a grudge against anyone.
I brought him into my room, tested his knowledge of the laws of ritual slaughter, and after he succeeded in the examination, I granted him the certification to serve as a ritual slaughterer. As he was about to leave, I rebuked him for his behavior and told him that he had committed the grave sin of disgracing the honor of Torah. However, the young man claimed he had no idea what I was talking about, and that he had never called me! His words rang true, and I sent him on his way. The likely conclusion is that someone else had hidden behind a false name and spoken to me as if in his name.”
After recounting this, Rabbi Moshe described to his friend the great joy he felt after withstanding this difficult test, ignoring his personal insult even though he thought the person before him was the one who had offended him.
Once, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein was at a gathering in a New York hotel. In the middle of the public repetition of the Amidah, someone informed him, “Rabbi, you have a phone call from the Land of Israel!” Rabbi Feinstein did not move. They tried again: “Rabbi, you have a phone call!” Still, he did not budge from his place. Finally, the man standing next to him finished his Amidah, and Rabbi Feinstein left the room to take his call. When asked why he had not left earlier, he replied: “There was a wall before me (referring to the law forbidding one to pass in front of someone praying), so how could I pass?!”
On one of the intermediate days of Sukkot 5732 (1972), it was announced in the small hall of 770 that the Rebbe was calling all those who had recently arrived from Russia to his room. About twenty-five people came. The Rebbe turned to his secretary, Rabbi Hodakov, and asked if everyone was present. When answered in the affirmative, the Rebbe turned to those present and said that he wanted them to go to Rabbi Feinstein and tell him about life in Russia. Among other things, he said: “Tell him everything, without humility....”
When they left the Rebbe’s room, the secretaries, Rabbi Binyamin Klein and Rabbi Chaim Yehudah Krinsky, were waiting with the two cars the Rebbe travelled in, and with them they traveled to Rabbi Feinstein. Rabbi Feinstein was very impressed to see young men, most of whom were born many years after the Communist revolution, all God-fearing and proficient in Talmud study, no less than an average Torah student in the United States. When they told him that Rabbi Yaakov Notik was proficient in half of the Talmud, he was beside himself and asked him: “How did you do it? How did you manage to withstand the incredible hardships in the Soviet Union?!” Rabbi Notik answered him: “What choice did we have?” Afterwards, Rabbi Moshe turned to the young men and asked them what they were learning and presented questions about the third chapter in tractate Kiddushin. When they answered the questions fluently, Rabbi Feinstein began to cry and had to wipe his eyes.
Rabbi Moshe Feinstein knew very well the meaning of Communist grip on Russian Jewry, which began when he was about thirty-five. His brother, Rabbi Mordechai, was killed by the wicked regime, and he himself risked his life, time and again, teaching Torah and saving the lives of other Jews. When he saw young boys committed to Torah study despite experiencing persecution all their lives, he felt this was an amazing phenomenon that touched the depths of the heart. In Chasidic thought, it is explained that tears represent the excess of the intellect, meaning they represent a response to an experience that the mind cannot contain. The intensity of the Divine revelation fills the head and overflows as tears. Here, the intense revelation was the powerful demonstration of how “Torah, the Holy Blessed One, and Israel are all one.” Israel in this story refers to the young men who came out from behind the Iron Curtain, the Torah refers to the Torah they learned, and the Holy Blessed One is revealed in their tremendous self-sacrifice they showed when studying God’s Torah.
The first two stories highlight how Rabbi Feinstein, as a true Torah scholar, was extremely sensitive to the minutiae of Jewish law and particularly to the feelings of others (as Jewish law dictates). Interestingly, when he set aside his honor (and a sage who sets aside his honor, his honor is indeed set aside), it was revealed that the offender was not the person who stood before him! This reminds us of Rebbe Nachman’s saying that “The one they [his opponents] argue against, I too argue against [and it is not me at all].” When we uncover the inner reality behind the external masks, it becomes clear that all Jews are united with God and with each other and disputes arise only from mistaken identity.
