Rav Yaakov HaLevi Ruderman
Founding Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Yisroel in Baltimore, a talmid of the Alter of Slabodka who built Torah in America and treated every talmid as a son.
Biography
Early years
Rav Yaakov HaLevi Ruderman zt"l, the founding Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Yisroel in Baltimore, came into the world on Shushan Purim 5660 (1900) in the little town of Dolhinov near Vilna, then part of the Russian Empire and today in Belarus. His family was Chassidic, of the Chabad tradition. His father, Rav Yehuda Leib, was a melamed who also served as the town’s rav, and his mother was Sheina.
He came late into his parents’ lives, the first son after six daughters. His father knew Shas with Tosafos well and saw his son’s gifts early, so he woke the boy before davening to learn a blatt and gave him a reward for every daf he memorized. Rav Ruderman often said that although he might have passed his father in learning, he never came near his father’s level of avodah and yiras Shomayim. Before his bar mitzvah he had mastered Seder Nashim and Seder Nezikin.
Shortly before the bar mitzvah, his father brought him to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rav Sholom Ber, for a berachah. The Rebbe was deeply impressed and blessed the boy to grow into an odom godol. The Rebbe hoped the boy would study in Lubavitch, but his father decided to send him to Slonim instead.
The young illui from Dolhinov soon became well known. At that time it was the custom of Slabodka talmidim to look for outstanding bochurim to bring to Slabodka, and Rav Yechezkel Sarna, then already one of the Alter’s closest talmidim, persuaded him to come. It proved a turning point in his life. He learned in Yeshivas Knesses Yisroel in Slabodka under the Alter, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, and the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein, and among his fellow talmidim were Rav Reuven Grozovsky, his first cousin Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky, Rav Aharon Kotler and Rav Yitzchok Hutner.
Torah and leadership
He joined Slabodka in Minsk during World War I, after the yeshiva fled eastward from the advancing German army. In Minsk he met the Godol HaDor, Rav Chaim Brisker. The Alter showed great affection for the young talmid and appointed Rav Yechezkel Sarna as his older-bochur mentor. Rav Ruderman learned with tremendous hasmadah but could not keep to the yeshiva’s fixed sedarim, so the Alter allowed him to learn in his own way provided he reached the goals set for him. In 1926 he received semichah from Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein. He also took special pride in the semichah he received from Rav Meir Atlas, the father-in-law of Rav Elchonon Wasserman, which traced back through Rav Eizele Charif and Rav Abbale Peslover to the Vilna Gaon himself.
In 5684 (1924) he married Faiga, daughter of Rav Sheftel Kramer, who had married a daughter of Rav Shraga Feivel Frank, and whose brothers-in-law included Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein, Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer and Rav Boruch Horowitz. The Rebbetzin stood beside him in all his efforts for Yiddishkeit. She took the practical burdens of the household off his shoulders, and she urged him on when he set out to establish a yeshiva in a land that barely understood the idea. She organized fundraising and collected food for the yeshiva. When she passed away, several years before his own petira, the Rosh Yeshiva was inconsolable.
In the first years of marriage he gave himself entirely to learning. In 1926 he published his only work in his lifetime, Avodas HaLevi, on Seder Kodshim. At the start of the 1930s the family came to America, and he joined his father-in-law at the yeshiva in New Haven that had moved to Cleveland, where Rav Sheftel Kramer was the spiritual guide of the yeshiva (menahel ruchani).
In 1933 Rav Ruderman accepted the position of Rav of the Tiferes Yisroel shul in Baltimore, on the condition that he could use the building for a yeshiva. The yeshiva opened with six students, and he called it Ner Yisroel, after Rav Yisroel Salanter, the founder of the mussar movement. Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz of Torah Vodaas sent bochurim from New York, and Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky sent his own children from Toronto. Rav Yehoshua Klavan, who had been among the foremost students of Rav Boruch Ber and was Rav of Washington, D.C., sent a son, raised money and came during the winter months to give the daily shiur when Rav Ruderman had laryngitis. Rav Naftoli Zvi Yehuda Riff of Camden, New Jersey, a grandson of the Netziv, also gave great help. Rav Shimon Schwab, then Rav of another Baltimore congregation, taught the first-year shiur for several years before moving to Washington Heights.
Rav Ruderman led the yeshiva for fifty-four years. His brother-in-law, Rav Naftoli (Herman) Neuberger, handled the financial side, and together they built Ner Yisroel into one of the largest yeshivos in America, producing thousands of rabbanim, educators and learned laymen. He sat on the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Yisroel and chaired the rabbinic advisory board of Torah Umesorah.
His learning was encyclopedic, covering Bavli and Yerushalmi, Rishonim, Poskim, Acharonim and teshuvos. He often told talmidim that at fifteen, in Slabodka, he would rise at five in the morning, go to sleep after midnight and learn fifty blatt a day. He challenged his students to find proof from one Gemara for a seemingly unrelated question, and he showed them how all of Torah is connected. He said he used kushyos as memory keys for the Gemara, and so he always had a sharp question or remark ready for any sugya that came up. His lips could be seen moving as he thought, and a kushya he took to bed often disturbed his sleep.
He loved his talmidim as he loved Torah. When a talmid asked a good question or offered a fine sevara, his face lit up, and when a talmid said something he had not thought of, he was overjoyed. Many were embarrassed, years later, to be reminded by him of an insight they had long forgotten. He took an interest in their needs and shared their burdens. Bochurim who came as refugees or from homeless and troubled homes found a father in him. He modeled his chinuch on the Alter’s, treating each bochur according to his own nature, and when he had to rebuke the whole yeshiva he spoke warmly even as he called them to account.
Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky once said, as Rav Schneur Kotler related, that the Baltimore Rosh Yeshiva mirrored the Alter more than anyone else in the generation. This was after both had been invited to Lakewood to speak on the Alter’s fiftieth yahrzeit. Rav Ruderman raised thousands of talmidim, and hundreds of them grew into Gedolei Torah and marbitzei Torah carrying on his work.
Teachings and seforim
Avodas HaLevi on Kodshim, written in his youth, remained the only sefer he published himself. His talmidim later published his teachings, including Sichos Levi, mussar insights on the weekly parshah, later revised and republished as Sichos Avodas Levi, and Mas’as Levi, shiurim on the Minchas Chinuch together with other Talmudic and halachic thoughts. They also published his shiurim on Maseches Kesubos, Kiddushin, Bava Kamma, Bava Metzia and Sukkah, under the title Shiurei Avodas Levi. A project to preserve his legacy, the Sefer Avodas Levi Project, is under way.
Later years and passing
In his old age Rav Ruderman became legally blind, but he could read when he held a book a few inches from his face, wearing very thick lenses, and he continued to hold a siddur while davening. After the Rebbetzin passed away, his grandchild Rav Beryl Weisbord, the yeshiva’s menahel ruchani, and his wife Aviva moved into the Rosh Yeshiva’s home with their children to care for him. The grace with which they did so eased his loss and greatly improved his later years, and he expressed his gratitude to them again and again.
On 14 Tammuz 5747 (July 11, 1987), at the age of eighty-seven, Rav Ruderman passed away. His death came less than eighteen months after the passing of Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky and Rav Moshe Feinstein. He was one of the last roshei yeshiva who had come to America from Lithuania early in the twentieth century. Thousands came to the levaya in Baltimore to take leave of the last living connection to the greatness of Slabodka. He was buried in Baltimore’s United Hebrew Cemetery.
Legacy
Their only child was Rebbetzin Chana Weinberg, and her husband, Rav Yaakov Weinberg, took over as Rosh Yeshiva and led Ner Yisroel until his own passing in 1999, twelve years later. Rebbetzin Weinberg passed away on January 23, 2012. They had six grandchildren and many great-grandchildren, who surrounded the Rosh Yeshiva in his last days.
Stories
How He Received Two Names
Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky, Rav Ruderman’s cousin and namesake, told how Rav Ruderman came to have his name. A year before the birth, an elderly, childless man named Reb Yitzchok told Rav Yehuda Leib that a son would be born to him, and asked him to promise to name the boy Yitzchok. Rav Yehuda Leib doubted it would happen, and half in jest he agreed.
When the boy was born a year later, his mother wished to call him Yaakov, after her own father. The question was brought to a rav, who ruled that the child should carry both names, Yaakov Yitzchok.
A Quiet Gift from Rav Chaim Brisker
In Minsk, at the height of the war, young Yaakov Ruderman was privileged to meet Rav Chaim Brisker. Rav Chaim seemed to sense how much the young illui could become, and understood that he would require extra care to endure the hardships of wartime.
Without telling him, Rav Chaim arranged for a wealthy man to give the young talmid extra funds, so that hunger would not disturb his learning. Only after Rav Chaim passed away in 1918, and the support stopped, did Rav Ruderman discover who had been looking after him.
Finishing Shas Before the News
At Slabodka, the Alter allowed Rav Ruderman to learn in his own way, since he could not keep to the yeshiva’s sedarim, as long as he met goals set in advance. It was agreed that he would try to finish Shas that winter. He took long walks during which he reviewed Gemoros and Sedarim from memory, and he was well on his way when a telegram reached the Alter shortly after Sukkos, announcing the petira of Rav Yehuda Leib.
The Alter did not want to interrupt his talmid’s learning, so he kept the terrible news from him. Only after Pesach, when Rav Ruderman had reached his goal, did he learn that his father had passed away. The Alter told him that finishing Shas brought his father’s neshamah far greater merit than all the Kaddish he had missed.
Back Into the Burning Building
In the early days of the yeshiva’s current campus, flames erupted in the building that housed the Rosh Yeshiva’s home, and everybody rushed outside. Then Rav Ruderman suddenly ran back in, calling out that he had left something behind that could not be replaced.
What was it that he risked his life to retrieve? His rare copy of the sefer Nesivos HaMishpat on Rabbeinu Yerucham. His love of Torah was strong enough to overcome even the most natural human instincts.
One Night with the Ohr Somei’ach
While Rav Ruderman was learning in Slabodka, a visitor came carrying a freshly printed Ohr Somei’ach. The young bochur wanted to borrow it, but the visitor said no, since he was leaving to continue his travels the following day.
Rav Ruderman was not discouraged. He asked for the sefer for a single night and promised to hand it back in the morning. By dawn he had worked through the whole sefer and mastered it.
Nodding Through the Procedure
The Rosh Yeshiva once had to go through a long medical procedure. To take his mind off the discomfort, the doctor made conversation, and Rav Ruderman nodded throughout as though in agreement.
Afterward, outside, he told the talmid who had come with him a beautiful way of understanding a sugya that had occurred to him during the procedure. Then he broke off and said, “By the way, did you happen to hear what the doctor was saying? I nodded to be polite, but what did he want?”
Gemara by Heart on the Road
On a long trip, two bochurim from the yeshiva traveled with the Rosh Yeshiva and decided to use the time to review several pages of Maseches Berachos that they knew by heart. The Rosh Yeshiva sat just in front of them, and they noticed him fidgeting in his seat. Every so often he got up, walked around and gave them a piercing look.
“What Gemara are you using back there?” he asked. “Is it a different girsa?” Hardly hiding their pride, the bochurim answered that they had no Gemara and were reviewing from memory. The Rosh Yeshiva smiled and recited the exact words of the Gemara for them.
No Tosafos Forgotten
When Rav Ruderman was in his eighties, a talmid went with him to daven Mincha. The Rosh Yeshiva complained that the strong medicines he took for his many ailments made him forget things.
The talmid asked whether he had forgotten any Tosafos in Shas. Rav Ruderman struck his cane on the floor and said firmly, “No, no, not Tosafos. I mean a chiddush I once said on a difficult Rambam. I have trouble remembering all of it.” The talmid saw in how unthinkable it was to him to forget a Tosafos a sign of the love and devotion for Torah that stayed with him all his life.
Living Seforim
Rav Ruderman used to show his talmidim a letter he had received in 5719 (1959) from the Steipler Gaon. The Steipler was asking for financial help to print the first volume of his major work, Kehillas Yaakov. In the letter he wrote that he had seen and learned Avodas HaLevi, which Rav Ruderman had written in his youth, and found in it wonderful chiddushim on the hardest parts of Seder Kodshim. He urged Rav Ruderman to write more seforim like it.
After showing the letter, Rav Ruderman would say, “I could write ten more volumes of Avodas HaLevi from the chiddushim I have, but now my seforim are leibidige seforim, living seforim, my talmidim.” He explained that teaching takes complete concentration. The Gemara says one should seek to learn Torah from a rebbe only if he resembles a malach, and a malach can carry out only one mission at a time. Teaching his talmidim took all of him, so he could not sit and write seforim.
Sick Over Rav Schneur’s Illness
In 1982 a talmid arrived at the Rosh Yeshiva’s home to accompany him to Mincha. He noticed that Rav Ruderman’s face looked broken. The Rosh Yeshiva said he had just heard that Rav Schneur Kotler was very ill. He quoted the Gemara that when a talmid chochom is sick, one must plead with Hashem for his recovery to the point of becoming ill over his plight. Then and there Rav Ruderman burst into bitter tears. When he had calmed himself somewhat, he went to Mincha.
For two days afterward the Rosh Yeshiva was ill and stayed in bed. Dr. Jakobovitz, the physician who lived on Yeshiva Lane, examined him and found nothing wrong. The talmid knew the cause: the Rosh Yeshiva had davened with such intensity that he had fallen ill over Rav Schneur’s condition, exactly as the Gemara says.
Rav Nochum’s Late Chanukah Candles
Rav Ruderman’s special consideration for his Rebbetzin had its roots in something he learned from the Chofetz Chaim, an account of a Chanukah night when the Chofetz Chaim was visiting Rav Nochum of Horodna. Hours passed and Rav Nochum still had not lit the menorah. Finally, very late at night, when the streets had long been empty, Rav Nochum’s wife came home. Only then did he light, long after the time set by halacha.
The Chofetz Chaim could not hold back his curiosity and asked why. Rav Nochum answered that halacha says if one has money for only one, ner Shabbos comes before ner Chanukah because of sholom bayis. His wife, he said, was moser nefesh so that he could give his life to Torah and avodas Hashem, and she enjoyed being there when the menorah was lit. That made it his duty to wait for her and give up lighting at the proper time.
Rav Ruderman’s talmidim saw him follow this lesson many times. At Agudah conventions, Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky’s address after Shalosh Seudos kept the audience spellbound until long after Shabbos ended. Rav Ruderman would regularly step out partway through to phone his Rebbetzin. He always apologized to Rav Yaakov, and the two reminded each other of the story of Rav Nochum.
The Wives’ Thank You
At the last Knessia Gedola, in 5740 (1980), several women who were married to his talmidim in Eretz Yisroel asked to meet him. He asked after their families and then asked why they had requested the meeting.
They said they wanted to express their hakoras hatov. Their husbands, they explained, treated them with more respect and consideration as they had watched the way their Rebbe treated the Rebbetzin. The incident made a great impression on the Rosh Yeshiva, as a clear picture of how a Rebbe’s conduct shapes his talmidim.
The Inkwell and the Cream
A talmid came to the Rosh Yeshiva’s house before joining the yeshiva, to be tested. In the middle of the conversation he knocked over an inkwell, leaving a stain on the sofa that would never come out. The talmid did not know where to look. Rav Ruderman went on speaking as if nothing had happened, while quietly trying to hide the mark so the young man would feel better. When he saw that this was not helping, he assured the talmid that it was nothing.
Words alone are often just a polite formula, and a host’s face usually shows what he really feels. “But this time,” the talmid said, “the Rosh Yeshiva wisely made me believe that truly nothing was wrong.” A damaged sofa meant nothing next to a person’s pain.
More than thirty years later the same talmid visited again. Drinks were served, and again there was an accident. This time a cup of cream spilled on the Rosh Yeshiva’s trousers. The reaction was identical. The conversation continued smoothly, the Rosh Yeshiva simply moved his legs beneath the table, and again he persuaded the talmid that there was nothing to worry about.
Teachings
A Talmid Is Always a Son
Chazal teach that the word “sons” in “and you shall teach them to your sons” refers to talmidim. Rav Ruderman asked why the pasuk does not simply say “your pupils.” He answered that it teaches us that talmidim are like sons. A son remains a son forever, and in the same way a talmid remains a talmid. A Rebbe must never think his talmid is dear to him only while he is under his guidance, and that the bond ends when that period ends. The truth is far greater. Once a person becomes a talmid, he becomes his Rebbe’s son, and even when he goes his own way, the bond should not weaken.
Devarim 6:7, as taught by Rav Ruderman
A Teacher Remembers His Students
Rav Ruderman often cited the verse in Doniel, “And those who make others wise will shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who bring many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever,” as a sign of his love and pride in talmidim who became teachers of Torah. He would quote the Maharsha’s explanation that the stars and the moon remain overhead all day though no one sees them, and so too a teacher remembers and thinks about his students even years later.
Doniel 12:3, with the Maharsha, as cited by Rav Ruderman
Patience with Every Bochur
Rav Ruderman often warned that dealing with bochurim involves dinei nefoshos, a question of spiritual life and death, and must never be treated lightly. When members of the yeshiva’s hanhola thought a certain bochur should be expelled, he held firm. The future of such a talmid cannot be known, he said, and perhaps with a little more patience he would develop properly. For the most part, he lived to see his view proved right.
Rav Ruderman’s guidance to the hanhola of Ner Yisroel
Seforim
- Avodas HaLevi: His only sefer in his lifetime, published around 1926, containing chiddushim on difficult areas of Seder Kodshim.
- Sichos Levi: Mussar insights on the weekly parshah, published by his talmidim after his passing and later revised as Sichos Avodas Levi.
- Mas’as Levi: Shiurim on the Minchas Chinuch and other Talmudic and halachic insights, published by his talmidim.
- Shiurei Avodas Levi: Shiurim on Maseches Kesubos, Kiddushin, Bava Kamma, Bava Metzia and Sukkah.
Family & talmidim
Teachers: Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, the Alter of Slabodka, Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein, Rav Meir Atlas
Talmidim: Rav Yisroel Dov Kaplan
Children: Rebbetzin Chana Weinberg, his only child, wife of Rav Yaakov Weinberg
Also on 14 Tammuz
All hilulos on 14 Tammuz ›Historical sources
- Yated Neeman