Rav Avigdor Miller
Rav Yisroel Brog recalled some stories from his grandfather, Rav Avigdor Miller, zt”l: I remember we had a small family Simchah that took place in a Shul basement. My grandfather saw a young girl there who was about six years old. She was walking around, and she was not one hundred percent dressed modestly as a Tzenuah.
Rav Miller got very upset. He insisted that they put up a Mechitzah, right then and there in the middle of the Simchah. However, no one listened to him. So he got up and he said, “This demands Tznius. We need a Mechitzah.” Some people snickered, saying, “It’s okay. There aren’t any strangers here. It’s just family.”
But my Zeida got up. He brought over two coat racks and he placed them between the men and the ladies. Then he got some extra tablecloths and draped them over the coat racks. He did this all by himself, and he made a Mechitzah.
Rav Brog said that later, Rav Miller said to him, “I saw the snickering, and it doesn’t bother me at all!” Rav Miller had tremendous strength to make Gedarim for the sake of Kedushah. One time, when my Zeida was in his upper 80’s, I drove by his Shul in the summertime, and I noticed that the few windows that he had in the front of the Shul were open, and the door was wide open.
Now, it wasn’t at a time when the Shul was in use, and I knew my Zeida was very careful about keeping the windows and the doors closed. There was no such thing for him to not check to make sure that the doors and windows were closed. I pulled my car over and I said, “I have to check this out and see what’s going on.”
I walked into the Ezras Nashim. The front door of the Shul opened up to the Ezras Nashim, and the entrance to the Bais Medrash was on the side. When I walked in, I saw a lady sitting in the middle of the Ezras Nashim. She was a Tzniusdik’e lady. I wondered what she was doing there?
Rabbi Yisroel Brog
I said, “Excuse me, can I help you? Could I give you some assistance? Are you looking for something?” She turned around and said, “I’m talking to the Rav.”
I thought to myself, “Oh, this is another one of those characters, one of those Miller nuts.” I said to myself, “Who knows what this is here?” I said to her, “I’m the Rabbi’s grandson. What are you doing here?” All of a sudden, I hear my grandfather, Rav Miller, say, “Who is there?” I walked through the Ezras Nashim, around the Mechitzah and into the Bais Medrash. My Zeida was sitting on a folding chair facing the Ezras Nashim, and he had a Sefer Mesilas Yesharim on in his lap that was open to the first Perek.
I said to him, “Oh, Zeida, you’re learning with her?” He said, “No, I’m talking with her.” I went back outside and I went home. The next time I met my Zeida, I said, “What was going on in the Shul at that time? All the doors were open, all the windows were open, and a Mesilas Yesharim was on your lap. What was all that for?
He told me, “You could never be too careful! You could never be too careful!” He was sitting on the men’s side and the Mechitzah was completely closed so he couldn’t see the woman he was talking with. This was Kedushah, and Rav Miller made Gederim so that he wouldn’t stumble with Kedushah!
Reprinted from the Parshas Vayeitzei 5786 email of Rabbi Yehuda Winzelberg’s Torah U’ Tefilah.
