Thousands of talmidim, alumni, admirers and the entire Torah world were thrown into mourning with the passing of Rav Aharon Moshe Schechter, the rsh yeshivah of Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin and a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.
Rav Aharon Moshe was born in 1928 to his parents Reb Yosef and Fruma Rochel in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. Reb Yosef was a well-known askan and was instrumental in keeping struggling mosdos afloat. After attending Yeshivas Toras Chaim for elementary school, Rav Aharon enrolled in Mesivta Yeshiva Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin, where he quickly caught the eye of Rav Yitzchak Hutner, its legendary rosh yeshivah. His great potential was evident to Rav Hutner, who began to mentor the young talmid. Indeed, his relationship with Rav Hutner would be the driving force behind Rav Aharon’s development into a revered talmid chacham and adam gadol, a leader of the olam haTorah in America
Aside from his shiurim, Rav Hutner also gave Rav Aharon private shiurim, alongside such luminaries as Rav Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe, zt”l, and ybl”ch Rav Yonason David, Rav Hutner’s son-in-law.
When Rav Aharon was a bachur, Rav Hutner asked him to give chaburos to his contemporaries, as well as to mentor younger bachurim and learn with them. When Rav Aharon was engaged to his future rebbetzin, Shoshana Leichtung, a younger bachur asked Rav Aharon to explain a chiddush of Rav Chaim Halevi. Rav Aharon responded, “Nisht azoi lerent men a Rav Chaim. You have to learn the entire sugya first, starting from the Gemara, Rashi, Tosafos and Rishonim. Only then can you even begin to attempt to tackle the Rav Chaim.” But instead of dismissing the bachur, who was ten years Rav Aharon’s junior, he sat down and learned with him for hours until he was satisfied that both the sugya and the Rav Chaim were clear. The efforts Rav Aharon expended on him made a lasting impression, and he went on to become a well-known marbitz Torah.
Soon after Rav Aharon’s wedding, Rav Hutner asked his prized talmid to begin saying shiur, while still mentoring and nurturing him. Rav Aharon grew under his rebbe’s tutelage and became his most devoted student. In his sefer Avodas Aharon, Rav Aharon refers to Rav Hutner’s haskamah as a “nesinas reshus, a letter of permission” instead of an approbation, which it was. In the letter, Rav Hutner praised his talmid as a gaon in Torah and expressed his joy that the “besamim within him will begin to spread wider.” He also wrote that he approved of the name of the work, because Rav Aharon combined the two oros of Torah and avodah into one.
Rav Aharon was totally devoted to his rebbe, yet his closeness never brought him to any hint of levity when speaking to him. Whenever he was about to enter his office, Rav Aharon would literally tremble in awe. He was the true embodiment of mora rabbach k’mora shamayim.
When Rav Hutner moved to Eretz Yisrael with his son-in-law, Rav Yonason David, he handed the reins of the yeshivah over to his closest and most trusted disciple. In the decades that followed, Rav Aharon built upon the foundations Rav Hutner had so carefully laid and turned Chaim Berlin into one of the foremost mekomos Torah in the world. Rav Aharon’s leadership was more hands on and thus markedly different from that of his rebbe. Although Rav Aharon strived to emulate Rav Hutner, he did not try to imitate him. He recognized that simply copying Rav Hutner’s ways wouldn’t work for him as it had for his rebbe because they had different personalities.
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