By By M. Samsonowitz
This article originally appeared in Yated Neeman, Monsey NY. and is reprinted here with their permission
When young Rav Avigdor was yet 17 years old, he spoke in English before a crowd of a 1000 worshippers before Kol Nidrei services after the congregation's rav had spoken in Yiddish. He avidly attended and listened to the Yiddish droshos of the distinguished rabbonim in Baltimore. Rav Gifter once told Rav Miller's son, "The zchus of my learning Torah is due to your father. It was he who encouraged me to go study in Europe." The six years he spent in the Slabodka yeshiva were the turning point in his life. It was in these years that he incubated in the Slabodka philosophy of gadlus ha'odom and tikkun hamidos which laid the groundwork for his Torah worldview and teachings.
His diligence in Torah study in the Slabodka yeshiva was legendary. He would sit and learn gemora for hours at end. His shirt sleeves were worn out from the many hours he pored over his studies at his shtender in the yeshiva. He also spent many hours avidly going over the Chovos Halevovos, the classic mussar text which was his lifelong article of faith.
In 1935, he married his life partner for sixty-six years, Ethel Lessin, the daughter of Rav Yaakov Moshe Lessin, rav of Neishtat and later the mashgiach ruchani of Yeshivas Rabbenu Yitzchok Elchonon in New York.
Returning to the United States at the age of 30 in 1939, the young man would spend the following 63 years of his life refining his unique educational techniques and disseminating his views which emphasized non-ending Torah study, constant contemplation on Hashem and His works, and fierce dedication to a Torah way of life.
Rabbinical Appointment in Chelsea
The first rabbinical position which Rav Avigdor accepted was in an Orthodox synagogue in Chelsea, Massachusetts. This small Jewish community was mired in the same difficult throes as other American Jewish communities during that time - the younger generation was ignorant, disaffected and in the process of rapid assimilation. Getting them interested in Judaism was easy.
Rav Miller asked around: Is there anyone who has a son who wants to learn?
He was introduced to a young Jewish man who was working as a butcher.
Feeling the young man had potential, Rav Miller commenced to study Torah with him. After a while, the young man quit his job and came to study full-time with Rav Miller. With time, the young man married and became a Jewish teacher in a yeshiva in Boston.
One success story in an entire Jewish community! Rav Miller knew that Torah study and only Torah study could maintain Judaism. It was necessary to found a Jewish school where children would be imbued with Judaism from their earliest years. He mounted a campaign to found a Jewish day school with the assistance of his father-in-law, Rav Yaakov Moshe Lessin. The fierce opposition of the supporters of the afternoon Talmud Torahs had to be surmounted, but finally he succeeded. The school opened its doors and congregants began to send their children to study in it.
In the meantime, Rav Miller had the pressing problem of his own children's education. His oldest son had reached school age, but, well aware of the atmosphere of the public schools, Rav Miller had procured for his son a special exemption from school. His son studied his English studies privately with a tutor and Rav Miller taught him his Jewish studies. The lad had to show up in the public schools twice a year to take evaluation tests. It was not a preferred arrangement, and Rav Miller feared that what happened to the children of other rabbonim would happen to his own. He began to think seriously of moving to a larger Jewish population center.
The dedication ceremony of the school's new building was held in 1944. Rav Miller had decided to invite the distinguished rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Chaim Berlin, Rav Yitzchak Hutner, to speak at the event. Rav Hutner had studied many years in Slabodka, and was famous as a preeminent Slabodka graduate.
Before Rav Miller could call Rav Hutner, though, Rav Hutner called him. To his great surprise and joy, Rav Miller was offered to take the job as mashgiach of Yeshivas Rabeinu Chaim Berlin. This would give him the chance to move to New York where vibrant Jewish education was available for his children. He jumped at it.
The day following the school's dedication, Rav Miller told his baalebatim that he was leaving for New York. The upset was great, but no amount of pleading could get him to change his mind.
However, he did not leave the congregation without guidance. He called his earlier disciple who was teaching in Boston to take over the school. This man made it a great success, and used it as a springboard to engage in kiruv activities throughout the Jewish community. One or two busloads of youths from Chelsea starting coming to Camp Aguda on scholarship every summer. From that initial contact, many went on to Yeshivas Torah Vodaas and other yeshivos. The eventual result was that entire families remained religious, faithful Jews. Today, these youths who remained religious due to Rav Miller' s efforts in Chelsea have hundreds of descendants who are firmly placed in the religious world.
Rav Miller was later to say that if he had just remained in Chelsea and not gone to New York, that alone would have been his ticket to the World to Come.
A Rav in Young Israel
The Millers moved to East Flatbush and Rabbi Miller took up his position in Yeshivas Rabeinu Chaim Berlin. Shortly after he arrived, he was invited by the Young Israel of Rugby to be their unofficial rav. The shul, located at East 49 street in Brooklyn, was a modest building that didn't even had a sign on it. It had 150 seats for men and 70 for women.
In 1946-47 Rav Miller given the official appointment. What attracted the congregants to him initially was that he was a learned scholar, he spoke English very well, and he happened to be living right there.
Members of Young Israel in those days were a group of outstanding idealists that were Torah heroes of their time. It was these people who created the original religious centers in New York and out of town, and it was they who campaigned to influence Jewish storeowners to close their shops on Shabbos, which was an formidable trial in those days.
They offered a vibrant Jewish environment, social activities, spirited davening and youth groups for Jewish youths attending public schools and young adults in the work force.
Rav Miller's congregation soon discovered that their rabbi was unlike any other rabbi they had before. The first thing he demanded was complete decorum in shul. Chattering in shul was common in those times, and most people were laboring under the impression that a shul was supposed to double as a social hall.
Talking during prayers would not be countenanced in Rav Miller's shul, period. Rav Miller's princely demeanor and piercing eye immediately conveyed to his congregants that there was no room for negotiating on this demand in the Young Israel of Rugby throughout chazaras hashatz and the Torah reading, the only sound that could be heard in shul was an insuppressible cough. If your eyes were closed, you could almost think no one was there.
The only youth who were permitted to come to shul were those who could sit next to their fathers and daven without disturbing others.
Non-congregation members who came to the shul to attend bar mitzvas quickly discovered that no one dare tamper with the rules. Anyone who dared break the decorum was sent out of the shul.
The Young Israel of Rugby shul became famous for its impressive attendance on Shabbos which was always full. Neither storm nor sleet could keep the congregants from attending shul.
Raising Religious Standards
How does one take a group of simple, good Jews to whom keeping Shabbos, kashrus and going to shul was the ultimate in Yiddishkeit -- and make them into bnei Torah? Rav Miller carefully laid his plans.
First Rav Miller consolidated his position in the shul. Once he found a group of congregants in the shul who listened to him and appreciated his challenge to strive for higher spiritual achievements, he proceeded on to the next step.
He challenged them to fine-tune their observance of Judaism. He was instrumental in founding the mikvah in East Flatbush and convinced many families to start observing family purity laws. He helped found the Shmiras Shabbos organization to try and get Jews to close their stores on Shabbos.
He kept educating his congregants about the fine points of Jewish law. It was a revelation to most that they couldn't carry their housekeys and handkerchiefs on Shabbos to shul. None of the women covered their hair and none of the men had beards. Slowly Rav Miller introduced their importance.
More than anything else, he spoke to his congregants about the importance of Torah study. He introduced Shabbos morning speeches before Mussaf before they became popular in other shuls. He spoke about the Torah section of the week, the various mitzvos, how to conduct one's life and the importance of Torah. Not only did he speak about it but he prodded you to do something about it.
One of Rav Miller's first and closest disciples recounts how he met Rav Miller as a young boy just after his bar mitzva.
"After hearing Rav Miller speak for 20 minutes," Mordechai recalls, "I felt like I was being introduced to the Ribono Shel Olam for the first time in my life." After many years under Rav Miller's tutelage, Mordechai eventually made aliya and is today a prominent mashgiach in an Israeli yeshiva.
Those of Rav Miller's congregants who wanted to grow under the rav's care, rallied around him and accepted his direction unquestioningly and devotedly. Other members were not as enthusiastic, but they had high regard for Rav Miller's position in the Chaim Berlin Yeshiva and they respected him. Those who preferred to remain in spiritual hibernation and mothball their Yiddishkeit were increasingly uncomfortable until they drew their own conclusions and left.
Rav Miller was unrelenting regarding those members who he felt were withholding the progress of the rest. Such members would often ridicule or disparage the increase in religiosity of the other members. When new members turned out to be troublemakers, he implemented what he wryly called "a membership drive" -- a campaign to drive out members who were detrimental to the others. He would tell them unmincingly, "If you don't learn, you're not a good Jew." He would hammer awa, "The best thing you can do for your kids is learn. If you don't open a sefer in your house, you're not a good Jew."
This was not a popular stance in those days. Since there were 20-30 other synagogues in the vicinity where the congregants didn't get this kind of censure, recalcitrant members left. The devoted followers of the Rav remained the element in the shul with the upper hand.
Although the Young Israel of Rugby was gradually becoming the most religious shul in the neighborhood, only Rebetzin Miller and one other lady wore a sheitel. But within 5 years of Rav Miller being there, at least half if not more of the women were wearing sheitlach. He hammered away at how a Jewish woman has to dress modestly. Although beards were looked down upon at the time, and some of his congregants ran their own businesses or had other visible high positions, many began to grow beards because of the rav's influence.
One Sukkos Rav Miller stood up right before Hallel and taught everyone how to shake a lulav and esrog. He went up to each congregant and made sure he knew how to do it. He also explained why they have to take the Arba minim, and why they turn to four directions.
To get the congregants to build their own sukkos, Rav Miller announced that he would personally visit anyone who put up a sukka. Within two years he had to retract that promise because there were too many sukkahs to visit.
When the Six Day War broke out, a huge quarrel broke out in the shul. Some of the members wanted to collect money and send it to Israel to help support the struggling State. Rav Miller, though, said they should send the money to yeshivos since the huge sums of money being spent for the war effort will reduce the money going to yeshivos. A fierce shul battle resulted in one of the largest membership "drives" that had ever taken place in the shul, but the Rav won out. The shul ended up sending large donations to the biggest Israeli yeshivas such as Ponevezh and Mir.
Significant sums of money were also set aside for the poor of Israel.
The secret of Rav Miller's success in his shul was that he made his baalebatim into his students. Once Rav Miller became their "rebbe", he never had a problem.
When Rav Miller established a 3-man presidium composed of his close followers who ran the shul contingent upon his approval, all controversy in the shul came to an end. The shul members did not hold meetings since everyone accepted the authority and decisions of the rav. When he wanted to raise the mechitza in his shul, Rav Miller simply told the president, and the next week it was done. When the presidium decided on a certain measure, they first sought the rav's approval and then went about implementing it.
Li'shem Shomayim
The congregants accepted the rav's autocratic rule because they knew everything he did was for the sake of Heaven, and all of his decisions emanated from selfless considerations.
This was most evident in how Rav Miller related to money. He refused to take a penny from anyone. Any money which was forced on him he gave to charity.
The shul only charged a $36 membership fee and $25 for seats during the High Holidays. These low fees of course couldn't cover more than a minimal rabbi' s salary, but Rav Miller refused to take more. He claimed that his salary covered his needs. The membership funds basically went for the upkeep of the shul and for advertising the rav's shiurim. Every time a new shiur opened, the shul advertised it in the NY Jewish papers.
When the shul moved to its new location, Rav Miller lived in the apartment on the floor above the shul. Since the shul was paying for his phone, gas, repairs and other sundry expenses, he didn't want to hear about a salary raise. To the contrary, he insisted on deducting $50 from his monthly salary since the shul had just undergone heavy expenses and he didn't want to add to the burden. Once the shul was on more solid footing, however, he refused to accept the money he had foregone. He even refused to take money for selling chometz, a universal custom of expressing appreciation to a Rav. When people would press him to accept money, he would tell them to give it to the shul.
Although membership fees were very low, the congregants gave lavishly to support Torah causes. The shul had a pushka where many congregants dropped some money before they began davening. One day after davening, Rav Miller went to the bima, placed his hand on the pushka and said, "This pushka pumps blood into the veins of the Jewish nation." After that dramatic declaration, the money began to pour in. During the year the proceeds were collected and sent to the five largest yeshivos in Israel -- Mir, Slabodka, Ponevezh, Chevron and Kamenitz.
The rav had his own fund for poor Kollel families in Eretz Yisroel, and the shul also held appeals during the year for American yeshivos. Funds were not collected for any other institutions, because he felt all the other shuls give to them and the yeshivos were not sufficiently supported.
The Groundbreaking Gemora Shiur
The year 1967 was the turning point in the shul. After speaking years on end about the importance of Torah study, Rav Miller had finally convinced 13 of his congregants to start a class in beginning Gemora one night a week. They chose the chapter of Shnayim Ochzim. The most you could say about those first 13 students was that they could daven from a Hebrew siddur.
Since they were unacquainted with Talmudic study, Rav Miller made them write down the lines of the gemora in a notebook, leaving spaces to fill in the explanation of the gemora in the future. Rav Miller read the text correctly to the students, while they filled in the vowels. The students had to review the Hebrew text tens of times until they knew it fluently. Then Rav Miller explained the meaning of each word and phrase and the students had to write the explanations in between the lines of the gemora. The students then had to repeat the explanation until they knew it perfectly.
In this way Rav Miller painstakingly advanced with his students learning a few lines of gemora at a time until by the end of the year, his students knew a small quantity of gemora perfectly.
It was painstaking, tedious work. Most of the students were in their 40's and one man was even 65. It was no small accomplishment to break into gemora study at this age, with all the new concepts and difficult language it involved. However, at the end of that year, the 13 men were proficient in the material that had been taught.
At the end of the year, Rav Miller gave a farher to each student. Each student came to Rav Miller's home and Rav Miller tested him on the entire year's material. Rav Miller pulled out his own gemora and asked the student to explain passages. You weren't allowed to bring your own notes.
When the questions had been answered to his satisfaction, Rav Miller congratulated the students. The thirteen men surged with the thrill of accomplishment!
When that year ended, Rav Miller announced that the coming year, the group would learn a whole chapter of gemora -- Perek Hamafkid! However, to do so successfully, it would be necessary to meet two nights a week.
Feeling a rush of confidence and achievement, the men acquiesced to the new arrangement. Again the Rav had his students write the text out and vowelize it, and then he explained the meaning meticulously. Then the students had to practice reading the text again and again until they had it perfect. Then they had to explain the meaning to each other chavrusa-style. The process involved continuous review until every student knew it almost by heart.
The tape recorder had just been invented and it was drafted to help in the project. Rav Miller installed outlets all around the shiur room so his students could plug in their tape recorders, record the shiur, and then go home and review it some more. It gave the men the opportunity to hear the shiur again as if Rav Miller was his private chavrusa. The students glowed with their newfound literacy.
"We knew the perek perfectly," says one of these students. "We could explain it as well as a bochur in a yeshiva."
When the students' ability to absorb his instruction had increased, Rav Miller increased the night shiur from one hour to an hour and a half. At one point, when Rav Miller became ill, someone suggested that they cut the shiur back to an hour. But Rav Miller said, "Retreat? Never!" In addition to the study itself, the unvarying themes which he continued to pound into his congregants was the importance of Torah study and the respect due to Torah scholars. Derogatory terms and attitudes that had unwittingly seeped into their consciouses referring to Torah students as "bench-kvetchers" were eradicated at their root.
Mission Impossible: An Entire Mesechta
The students were jolted again when in the third year of their study group, the rav insisted that they would learn an entire mesechta! However, to do this, they would have to meet three nights a week -- and as if this wasn't enough, Sunday morning too. Rav Miller instituted a Sunday morning breakfast in shul so the men wouldn't have to go home for breakfast and face distractions that would prevent their return for the shiur.
Sunday afternoon was needed to review the material with chavrusas. With the time, the rav reserved study of the hardest chapters for those few hours of prime study time. From the gemora shiur being an interesting avocation, the students suddenly found themselves studying it as seriously. Because an entire group of congregants were involved, each one reinforced the other's resolve to carry on. They joined each other in reviewing the material through the week. An enormous amount of discipline was required not to let go and let numerous distractions interfere. But the group felt richly rewarded when at the end of that year they had finished their first mesechta.
Although it was becoming popular for religious families to go to the mountains in the summer, this was rare among the students of Rav Miller's gemora shiur. How could one leave the gemora shiur just to get away from the city heat to get fresh mountain air? After all, the rav said that the gemora shiur was more life-giving. One student remembers studying Chullin one summer. "We sweated through Ha'Or v'Harotev and Ailu Trefos," he fondly remembers. "And when he did Perek Chelek in depth, he invited the ladies to join us for the shiur."
Sometimes Rav Miller explained a complicated topic, and to be sure the students knew it, he would call on them to explain it. If a man would hesitate, the rav would tell him, "You have a good head and I know you can grasp this. Apparently, I didn't explain it well enough." He would then start again from beginning.
Besides explaining the meaning of the gemora itself, he utilized the study to convey important lessons in hashkafa and mussar.
"Rabbi Miller was so dynamic," explained Mr. S. "His enthusiasm was infectious. At first, we decided to join the gemora shiur more for him than for ourselves. It took a lot time from the family, and we had to give up many other things for it."
Family Chiding
It was not a simple thing to take away so much time from home and leisure, and devote it to the mindbreaking study of Talmud. Each of the men had parents, brothers and sisters who were rebuking them for neglecting their families.
"My family asked me disapprovingly 'What? Every night you leave your wife alone and go learn? What will she do if she needs to reach you?'" recalls one of the students. When Rav Miller's gemora shiur students helped support their married children in kolel, the family chiding changed to "What will your son do when he leaves Lakewood?"
But we were pleased too because R. Miller explained to us what a wonderful thing it is to have our husbands learn.
Not only would we get 50% of their reward, but they were learning l'shem shomayim, which was a very great mitzva. We were proud of our husbands. And at the shul's banquet which we held every year, every woman whose husband had attended the gemora shiur and had given Rav Miller a tape in which he explained a chapter of gemora by himself, received a big beautiful bouquet."
From the bima in shul on Shabbos, Rav Miller would frequently announce that so-and-so had completed studying an entire chapter or mesechta of gemora.
His constant praise and encouragement for those who would undertake to study gemora generated a jealousy for learning that infected the entire congregation.
When the third year of the gemora shiur finished with the great success of completing an entire mesechta, Rav Miller challenged the group to lift up their vistas. Now they were going to take on all of Shas! The men were stunned when they heard his words. A mere three years ago, they had been a bunch of ignorami -- and now they were going to finish all of the Talmud! It was mad! It was impossible! But they all resolved it was going to happen!
The group, which gradually grew to 40-50 students, persisted in their daily gemora studies. Finally, 14 years later, in 1984, the group finished Shas. This great event was celebrated with a gala siyum -- and the next day the group started Shas again. The gemora shiurim met altogether over 24 years with Rav Miller teaching up until the week of his passing, with many of the original students still participating. They finished Shas almost 3 times within this period.
Some of the students were dumbfounded when, after they finished studying 500 dafim, Rav Miller announced that from here on in they were to use the title of "Rabbi." "Any person who has studied this amount of gemora is deserving of this title," Rav Miller insisted. When the son of one such student was getting married, Rav Miller insisted that the invitation specify that "Rabbi" and Mrs. S. are honored to invite you...
Another congregation rabbi who had years before worked with Rav Miller in Yeshivas Rabeinu Chaim Berlin once commented, "I can bring people to my shul and make them shul Jews, but Rav Miller makes them into angels!"
Wide Range of Shiurim
The gemora shiurim going on in the Young Israel of Rugby was already more than what was available in almost every other shul. But Rav Miller was teaching far more than gemora shiurim. Over the years he developed a prolific program of studies that turned his shul into a virtual yeshiva.
On Friday night he gave shiurim in Chovos Halevovos, spending two winters over Shaar Habechina from which he only reluctantly agreed to move on. Before mincha on Shabbos, Rabbi Miller gave his famous Ein Yaakov shiur on Agadata for both men and women. Between mincha and maariv during the week, he ran a series on Orchos Tzadikim and Hilchos Tshuva of the Rambam. Gemora shiurim were running throughout Sunday and during every weekday morning and night. This was in addition to private study sessions through the day which he held with small groups of devoted students and private chavrusas.
The shul gradually opened gemora study sessions in the late morning, after shacharis, running from 9:30 until 11:00. Some of the participants were businessmen who chose to attend the morning shiurim and spend less hours at work. Some had to give up their vacations to attend.
One time, Rav Miller was beginning Mesechta Krisus one Shabbos morning. He announced to the congregation, "Don't miss another boat!" -- and the shul was filled for the shiur.
The congregants didn't realize themselves how they were changing due to the constant emphasis on Torah study. They became more meticulous in their observance. They adopted practices they hadn't known about or had thought were optional. They insisted on sending their children to better quality yeshivos. They junked their TVs, then their newspapers, and finally their radios. The changes took place not so much because of Rav Miller's exhortations but because the Torah's truth pierced their minds and everything else automatically followed.
Today, of the 175-190 families affiliated with the shul, there are none which doesn't have or didn't have a child who hasn't spent time in Kolel.
The only area in which congregants couldn't stop speaking was about the plethora of shiurim and the high level of studies going around the clock in the shul. Indeed, the spirit and excitement felt by the congregants about learning Torah came to expression when the shul moved in 1975 and renamed itself "Beis Yisroel Torah Center."
A member of the shul who joined in 1970 recalls, "I was looking for a shul where I would be challenged. I knew that if I joined Rav Miller's shul I would have to learn. But I had learned in yeshiva and I wanted to get back into it."
Rav Miller's Unceasing Torah and Avoda
Rav Miller's constant emphasis on his congregants' studying Talmud was a reflection of the far greater demands that he made of himself. Nothing he told people to do he hadn't done himself.
His devotion to gemora study was legendary. When he wasn't teaching his congregants or discharging any other rabbinical duties, he was inevitably studying himself, often into the late hours of the night. He not only hammered on endlessly about the primacy of learning, he was the prime example of this himself.
One of his most frequent sayings was the statement in the gemora: "Ashrei mi shebo lkan v'talmudo veyodo." -- Happy is the one who comes to the Next World proficient in his Jewish studies.
Because he was so preoccupied with his Jewish studies, he never took vacations, and didn't even attend weddings -- even of his own congregants. Even to his own grandchildren's weddings he only went for a short time, and even then only if they took place in New York. When he arrived to the affair, he held his coat in his hand and wouldn't check it in. People weren' t happy about this, but they understood his priorities. Because he was so consistent about it, they accepted it.
Although most of his hours were spent studying gemora, he invested many hours in studying the classic mussar seforim, particularly the Chovos Halevovos and the Mesilas Yesharim. This made him into an outstanding baal mussar, and his learning and davening were saturated with yiras shomayim.
A frequent saying of his was "People should think of Hashem all the time, even when they're davening."
He would say with great veneration, "Do you know what Torah is? Torah is a glimpse into the way Hakodesh Boruch Hu thinks."
Rav Miller had finished Shas numerous times, but he never spoke about himself. He was a tzadik nistar who concealed his personal accomplishments from the public and only revealed what he felt would inspire them to become better Jews themselves.
One of his guiding principles was: "Lo soguru mipnei ish -- fear no man."
He stated his viewpoints dauntlessly, even though many of them were unpopular at the time, particularly his censure of Zionism and society's race after materialism.
At many gatherings, he spoke about how a Jewish person should appear, and encouraged bnei Torah to grow beards and payos. "Distinguished demeanor is a gift from Hashem, and one does not shave Hashem's gift," he would say.
He was a man of deep emotion. At seuda shlishis time, at the close of Shabbos, those who davened with him saw him shed tears of longing and yearning for Hashem. He spoke to Hashem as a son supplicates his beloved father.
The Shul's Yarchei Kallah and Telephone Chavrusa Program
As if the revolution he had implemented in his shul wasn't enough, Rav Miller had big plans for disseminating Torah further afield. Four years after he had started his gemora shiur, he implemented the idea of Yarchei Kallah when it was unheard of in the US. After Labor Day, when hotels were generally empty, the shul arranged for 30-40 families to go away to a hotel. The men would learn in the morning and activities would be held for the women. The rav would lead nature hikes in the afternoon, in which he would expand on the miracles of the world Hashem had created. The men would resume their learning at night.
These special vacations not only tightened the families' ties to the shul, but became conduits for spiritual growth. By the second Yarchei Kallah, when word had spread through the mountains that Rav Miller was giving a hashkafa shiur, people came from all over to hear him.
Another original improvision that Rav Miller initiated was a telephone chavrusa program. His shul put advertisements in the Jewish newspaper offering to learn by phone with chavrusas. The study partners had to agree at a given hour that no family member would use their phones and it would be free for their study period. Dozens of young people begin learning Judaism this way. Some became so religious that they decided they wanted to learn Judaism more intensively and went to learn in yeshivas in Israel. If the telephone chavrusa had a hashkafa question, Rav Miller's congregant told him he would ask his rav and get back to him.
A young lady in the congregation married and went to live out west. She started such a program from Denver arranging for her friends to become chavrusas with the people who answered her offer for Jewish learning.
Once a year a breakfast was held in New York for all the chavrusas to meet and celebrate together. People came in from Upstate New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to meet their telephone chavrusas. At its peak, there were 40-50 pairs of chavrusas learning together.
Rav Miller pushed his congregants to engage in outreach work before the term was even invented. The shul would run advertisements encouraging Jews from outside to come learn or make their homes kosher. Congregants would distribute leaflets near the subways inviting people to enroll their children for bar mitzva lessons with the shul. A significant part of their efforts were directed to Russian Jewish immigrants. Rav Miller's students ran campaigns in which they gave out handbills to Russians inviting them to come to shul.
Shul Activism
It might seem that with all the learning going on in Rav Miller's shul, the shul congregants were a placid, passive lot or were too inwardly-directed to have time for activism. In fact, the opposite was true.
Rav Miller was a staunch independent and beholden to noone. He resolutely said what he felt was the honest view of Torah despite knowing it would invite attacks and condemnation. He was outspoken against evolution, Zionism, and the growing decadence in western society.
Although Rav Miller was not directly involved in politics, he always told his congregants who to vote for. Invariably, he supported the candidate who was conservative and moral since he felt the liberals were destroying the country. The only time he supported a Democratic candidate was when he was a conservative.
Once the city wanted to open shelters for the homeless in Brooklyn. Rav Miller felt that these shelters would be the destruction of the neighborhood. A meeting to prevent this from happening was held at Brooklyn College. Although Rav Miller on principle would not step foot in such a place, he rented buses, came with the entire congregation and lobbied against the measure in a meeting with city planners. His efforts were crowned with success and the city rescinded its plans.
Devoted to His Community
Aside for his indirect activism and non-stop shiurim, Rav Miller was a faithful shepherd to his flock, who was deeply involved in every aspect of his congregants' lives.
What school should I send the children to? What should I do with my problematic child? Should I let my son serve as counselor in this summer day camp? Should I invest in this real estate lot? Some hooligans are threatening my business if I don't pay protection money -- should I pay?
These were just a few of the many questions asked him by his congregants.
He engaged in marriage counselling when thorns sprouted in the relationships between husband and wife. In the 45 years in which Rav Miller led his congregation, only 2 divorces took place among his congregants. It was frequently due to his intervention that couples made up and harmony was restored.
Two years ago, a book was published of his advice for marital success and happiness.
He would call people aside and ask them what was going on in their life. He sensed by himself when something was troubling them. People knew they could call at any hour of the night and Rav Miller would invite them to come over on the spot.
One congregant recalls, "The only advice that the rav once gave me for my livelihood was to buy a certain piece of real estate. I thought to myself, 'What does he know about real estate!' and decided not to buy it. I regretted it because a short time later, the value of that lot tripled."
Although Rav Miller was a firm, unbending leader, he was warm and encouraging to his congregants.
Children had a special relationship with him. He showered them all the time with blessings and attention. The shul distributed candies to the children like in other shuls, but insisted that only children who could sit next to their fathers and daven properly could attend.
One congregant recalls taking his young children to daven shacharis in shul an entire week when his wife gave birth. The second day he came, Rav Miller gave each of them a gigantic lollipop. "I told the Rav that he needn't have troubled, because I would make sure they kept quiet. But Rav Miller replied, 'No, I got it for them because I like them.'"
He had an uncanny sense in grasping a situation. His advice was on target.
He would sometimes hear of two similar problematic situations but would give opposite advice because he felt the people in each of the cases had different needs.
Many years ago a group of his congregants received his approval to plan a visit to Israel where he would go along and be their "spiritual" tourguide.
The steering group quickly made arrangements with KLM, received a free hotel and car for Rav Miller, and arranged a cheap deal for all the others joining the tour. Right before they signed on the dotted line, the organizers approached Rav Miller to show him the itinerary and receive his approval.
He asked to see the list of those who were planning to go. After he looked it over, he told the organizer, "We can't go!"
The stunned organizers didn't comprehend his sudden opposition. But then he explained, "There are many people on this list who can't afford this trip and they're only going because I'm going. I know their financial problems -- they can't afford it." He cancelled the trip and never came to Israel until the day of his funeral.
The Holidays in Shul
Various celebrations were held in the shul throughout the year, but they were all inevitably connected to learning Torah in one way or another.
There were the Chanukah parties, particularly held in the early years of the shul, where a supply of luscious latkes kept streaming from the kitchen to the party table while the Rav feted his listeners with an inspirational talk on the eternity of Am Yisroel.
The shul organized its own groups to bake matzos for Pesach. Of course, the shul was in its element on Shavuos night. The majority of the shul's congregants stayed up the entire night to daven. It was one of the rare times when the shul divided into two different minyanim. The vasikin minyan that morning was large, and the second minyan, composed of those who weren't able to study through the night, was very sparse.
Rav Miller spoke extensively to the congregants on Rosh Hashona and Yom Kippur. He reminded them every year that on Rosh Hashona, all the appointments are made with the undertakers.
Yom Kippur was an all day affair in shul. The small break between mussaf and mincha did not allow the congregants to go home, and they davened intensely throughout the day. One congregant believes that Rav Miller's shul was the only shul in New York in 1973 that didn't know a war had broken out on Yom Kippur until they came home after the fast.
One congregant recalls, "On Yom Kippur before Neilah, Rav Miller studied Yonah with his congregation. Once he explained that just as the sailors threw everything overboard, it was up to us to throw away the superfluities of our lives. His explanations were so fascinating, we all regretted him stopping to begin Neilah."
On Simchas Torah, before he would let his congregants begin dancing, Rav Miller insisted that they sit down and learn gemora. Only after you study, he insisted, can you by rights dance with the Torah.
His First Book
The hashkafa shiurim Rav Miller had given his yeshiva students in Yeshivas Rabeinu Chaim Berlin and the energetic efforts he had invested to imbue his own congregation with Torah attitudes had been percolating in his mind. The idea began to take shape to write a book explaining the proper Torah hashkafa to today's Orthodox Jew.
At first he thought of writing a sefer in Hebrew, but was advised that since there is nothing in English, he should write his book in English.
Until then, Rav Miller had only written sporadic articles, although he was an accomplished and experienced speaker with an excellent vocabulary and powerful delivery.
He began writing 'Rejoice O Youth' in 1963. In 1964, when Yeshivas Chaim Berlin moved to Far Rockaway, Rav Miller decided to resign and devote himself full time to his congregation and his writing.
When he finished writing the book in 1965, he didn't have the $2,000 required to publish it. He contacted a well known Jewish publisher in New York and showed him the book. The publisher offered to print and distribute the book if Rav Miller would take out a few passages objectionable to most modern Orthodox Jews, such as the critical passages about Zionism. Rav Miller rejected his offer and instead borrowed $200 from ten different people. He published his book privately, printing 2,000 copies of the first edition.
His book made an immediate impact, and was sold out within a short time. Rav Miller was able to repay his loans within 8 weeks.
The book brought a flood of letters and telephone calls from searching Jews all over the world.
'Rejoice O Youth' dealt with all the issues that religious Jews were struggling with in those days. Religious Jews mumbled about how they believed that G-d created the world, but most were reluctant to openly deny the theory of evolution, which was a sacred belief to educated people.
Rav Miller hacked at the theory of evolution in his book at length, showing how its fallacy was only outdone by the blind, biased trust of the science community in it. Then he took apart the Bible critics. He demonstrated the dark side and intellectual paucity of the eastern religions, psychology, Islam, Catholic and Protestant Christianity, Zionism, and Communism. He explained the phenomenon of anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and the self-hating of assimilated Jews. He spoke scathingly about the emptiness of contemporary society. He spoke about the futility of technology. His explanations were compelling and sarcastic. As you progressed through the book, you couldn't help but burst out in laughter at the idiocy of many common beliefs.
He was a master at devising terms which mocked those who possessed wrong views, and unmasking the veneer of respectability from them. Evolutionists were "theorists"; inventors of other religions, Bible critics, Reform, Maskilim, and Zionists were "falsifiers" "substituters" "imitators" "idolaters" and "usurpers". He explained simply and easily the falseness underlying all these ideologies.
After showing how contemporary dogmas were baloney, he then described numerous beautiful phenomenon in the world while stressing how G-d had created all this to give us a beautiful life. He imbued you with positive feelings towards Hashem and challenged you to build a personal relationship with Him. He told you were capable of greatness, happiness and a life of deep meaning.
His writings were sprinkled with new terms which you never had heard of before: True Knowledge, real Awareness of Hashem, thinking about Hashem, the "truly great".
He spoke about the past and present greatness of the Jewish nation, and the great potential that every Jew has in him. He emphasized the importance of isolating ourselves from the negative influences all around, striving to fulfill our national mission, the love that Hashem possesses for faithful Jews, the importance of serving Hashem with enthusiasm, of obtaining character perfection, trusting in Hashem, how a Jewish home should run, the role of a Jewish mother, and preparing for the Afterlife.
After reading his book, you not only felt you had gained a unique Torah hashkafa, but generally felt reinforced in your belief in Torah, Hashem, and the wisdom of Judaism.
Other Books
'Rejoice O Youth' was just the beginning of his prolific writing. He continued over the following 25 years to write another 13 books, each of which was an inspiring masterpiece.
Another two hashkafa books "Sing You Righteous" and "Awake My Glory" (1980) continued to discuss the worldview of a religious Jew and delved more deeply into many of the issues mentioned in 'Rejoice O Youth'.
He wrote a commentary on chumash based on pshat which was stunningly original. 'The Beginning' on Breishis was published in 1967, 'A Nation is Born' on Shmos in 1992, 'Kingdom of Cohanim' on Vayikra in 1994, 'Journey Into Greatness' on Bamidbar in 1998, and the last volume Fortunate Nation on Devorim was published a mere two months before his death in March of this year.
He wrote a history trilogy which corrected numerous errors in Jewish history promulgated by secular and other historians who were ignorant of the Talmud and other ancient Jewish writings. 'Behold a People' (published in 1967) covered Jewish history until the Destruction of the First Temple, 'Torah Nation' (1972) covered it until the Destruction of the Second Temple, and 'Exalted People' (1984) covered it until the period of the Gaonim around 1000 C.E.
His commentary on the Siddur called "Praise My Soul" was published in 1982.
Rav Miller's books remain popular guideposts for the religious community until today. His 'Rejoice O Youth' has undergone 9 printings, and has been translated into Russian, Spanish, French and Hebrew. He allowed his books to be translated for free, and as with the English editions, insisted that the price be low so that they would be accessible to everyone. 'Behold a People' and 'Praise My Soul' have each been printed 4 times.
His disciple who was involved in printing his books once went into a seforim store to buy a book. He saw the clerk trying to convince a woman to buy 'Rejoice O Youth'. He asked the clerk if he knew who wrote the book and the young man said he didn't know.
Then the clerk told him, "I used to be non-religious. I was working in this store for 1 1/2 years and one day I had nothing to do. So I picked up this book and began reading it. It made such an impression on me that I decided to start keeping mitzvos. I gave the book to my parents and after reading it, they also decided to become religious! I went to study in Ohr Someach and became a learned Jew." Today this man is religious and he studies Torah regularly.