A Talk With The Rosh Yeshiva Harav Ahron Walkin Shlita About His Grandfather Harav Shmuel Dovid Walkin Ztzl

A Mini-Series on Ahavas Yisroel and Ahavas Chesed

HaRav Aharon Walkin: My Zaidy was a big giver; he was accustomed to giving and not taking. The first Halacha in the Shulchan Aruch is, “Be brazen like a Nemer (leopard) and Gibor (strong) like an Ari (lion). My grandfather would often remark that the law could have been written, “Gibor kanamer, be strong like a Leopard as well”. However, as he would explain with wordplay in the Yiddish language, “a nemer is nisht kain giber, un a giber is nisht kain nemer”, a taker (nimer) is usually not a giver (giber), and a giver is usually not a taker. My Zaidy was a tremendous giver and not a taker.

We Ashkenazim have a custom of calling up the groom to the Torah on the Shabbat before a wedding; this is called ‘Shabbos Aufrof’. My grandfather’s Shabbos Aufrof was in the town of Pahust, where he was the Rav. Customarily during such an event, the important aliyah of Maftir is given to the Chosson (groom). As it turned out, my grandfather’s Aufrof coincided with a young boy’s in the town bar mitzvah. In deference to custom, title and occasion, the gabay planned to give the Rav, my grandfather, the aliyah of Maftir; he planned to give the bar mitzvah boy a regular aliyah. However my grandfather refused and requested that the special maftir aliyah instead be given to the bar mitzvah boy. He explained, “Even though the Halacha may seem to imply that a chosson comes first, I have an upcoming wedding to look forward to with festivities and many good memories. If I take away this boy’s maftir, he won’t have much to take away from his bar mitzvah. I don’t want to take away from him the excitement of his bar mitzvah”. [The Lithuanian custom throughout Lita in those days was not to make large parties for the bar mitzvah. The boy would read the maftir, followed by a small kiddush]. My grandfather thus relinquished the aliya of maftir even though he was the chosson and Rav of the town.

HaRav Aharon Walkin: A certain well known Mirer talmid who suffered from a nervous breakdown during World War 2 used to regularly invite himself to my grandfather’s Shabbos table. Due to his mental state, this man would show up unexpectedly, unclean and totally disheveled. My grandfather always welcomed him warmly. He wanted this man to have a clean set of clothing and to feel that he was being given new clothing. So my grandfather would repack his own freshly laundered clothing and gift it to this man as a ‘new set’ of Shabbos clothing. My grandfather was meticulous in folding this ‘new’ clothing before placing it in the bag.

My grandfather always invited this man to sit next to him at the head of the table, exclaiming “Reb so and so, you’re such a big Talmid chacham who deserves to sit at the head of the table with me”. My grandfather began this practice after noticing that others avoided the guest because of his offensive odor. My grandfather wholeheartedly felt that every human being, regardless of who and what they were, deserved to be treated royally with dignity and respect.

HaRav Aharon Walkin: I heard the following story from a family member of mine who accompanied my grandfather and grandmother to Eretz Yisroel: In preparation for their trip, my grandparents packed thousands of dollars of meat for their son R’ Chaim and his family. In those days people would buy American meats for Israeli family members when they would visit them since Israeli meat was scarce and expensive.

Upon landing in Lod, customs discovered the meat and confiscated it. Unbeknownst to my grandfather, it was illegal to bring meat to Israel. My grandmother was extremely distraught since she packed two years’ worth of holiday meat for her son. My grandfather however was surprisingly calm and seemingly happy. When a family member asked why he was so calm, he responded, “When I asked the border patrol what would be done with meat, they told me “we aren’t gonna throw it away, we will distribute it to the poor in Israel”. I’m happy that Baruch Hashem at least the needy yiddin in Eretz Yisroel will be enjoying this meat!”

I don’t know if they really meant what they said about distributing the meat, maybe they just wanted to calm my grandfather down. However it was enough to make my grandfather happy losing a fortune of meat if he heard that it would be distributed amongst the poor yiddim in Eretz Yisroel. Now you understand what I mean when I say that my father was a big giver...

By Adam Suionov