By By M. Samsonowitz

This article originally appeared in Yated Neeman, Monsey NY. and is reprinted here with their permission

(Continued from last week)

How the Thursday Night Shiur Began

Although Rav Miller's accomplishments between his wide variety of shiurim, shul life and writings were already well known, his fame spread through the world in the wake of his famous Thursday night shiur.

Mordechai, who had been searching for a mentor and found it in Rav Miller, described his droshos as "An emotional and intellectual experience. It was a masterpiece delivery which combined idealism with avodas Hashem. You felt he was speaking to Hashem."

Mordechai had always yearned to capture Rav Miller on tape but since he only addressed the congregation on Shabbos, he was unable to do it. However, Rav Miller did give a short shiur in the late summer nights between mincha and maariv on Chovos Halevovos which lasted 20 minutes. Mordechai implored Rav Miller to allow him to tape the shiur.

It was no simple feat. Compact tape recorders were unknown and the tape recorders of that early period were based on reels which slowly wound around. The machine was heavy and large, and cumbersome to transport. Mordechai asked his father's friend if he could borrow the reel machine, and he brought it to shul. Finally, he recorded Rav Miller for the first time.

His disappointment was huge when Rav Miller approached him afterwards and insisted that he erase the reel. Rav Miller felt he had spoken too sharply against a certain group, and not want it to remain on record.

It was a tremendous disappointment for Mordechai, who reluctantly gave him the reel. As a consolation prize, Rav Miller arranged a special shiur during the week for a few close students in the shul who were attending yeshivos. This shiur became the first Rav Miller tape in existence.

Rav Miller told Mordechai, "Don't worry. Some day there will be miles and miles of tapes of me." This was before cassettes had been created, and before people even thought of listening to tapes. At the time it sounded fanciful, and didn't make sense. But it was true.

Another development in 1967 turned out to be a major milestone in Rav Miller 's life.

It began with a young Sephardi man in his 20's who was trying to imbue his life with more Judaism. Pinchos used to daven with Sephardim in the nearby Shaarei Tziyon shul. During the 60's, there was a major influx of Sephardim from Syria and Egypt to New York since Nasser had been making life uncomfortable for the Jews in the Middle East. They established their own community in Flatbush around the Shaarei Tziyon synagogue.

Pinchos didn't know how to read well, and he had a friend who he used to daven next to, help him out. If the friend wasn't there, Pinchos felt too uncomfortable to daven alone. He decided to switch to a minyan where the praying was slower so he would have an easier time keeping pace with the prayers.

Someone told him to try the nearby Mirrer Yeshiva where the davening was slower.

After five months of davening in the yeshiva, Pinchos was feeling frustrated. Although he was able to more or less keep up with the minyan, he wanted to feel close to Hashem. He felt he wasn't making progress in becoming a better Jew. His tefillos still took much effort, and he didn't know what else to do.

That day, he was finishing his lengthy prayers after everyone else had finished. Suddenly, he got an idea.

Pinchos prayed silently to Hashem, "Give me a sign that You're listening to me! Could you do something small, like lifting this chair? No, I take that back. I realize I can't ask for such a thing. But wait! I have an idea.

There's a schoolyard of boys playing ball outside. You know what. Lifting the chair is too much of a miracle to ask, but what about if a ball breaks a window of the beis hamidrash? I'll know it's a sign and the others will think its an accident. What about that, Hashem?" Pinchos waited several long minutes, but no ball came through the window. He felt disappointed and discouraged.

But suddenly there was a tap on the arm. It was a little boy who was telling Pinchos something in Yiddish. Pinchos told the little kid that he doesn't know Yiddish and he should say it in English. So the boy told him that Rav Shraga Moshe Kalmanowitz wants him to come over. Pinchos saw a man with a white beard sitting in a chair near the aron hakodesh. He had no idea who he was. But he went over to him.

The two began to speak and Rav Kalmanowitz discovered that Pinchos was a member of the Sephardic community nearby. He asked Pinchos if he would like to start a shiur for himself and his friends.

It sounded good. "Yes, why not?" Rav Kalmanowitz told him that he has an eloquent speaker, who is well versed in science and the contemporary world. Pinchos was agreeable. He imagined it would be a diplomaed Orthodox professor or scientist.

He received Rav Miller's telephone number from Rav Kalmanowitz, phoned Rav Miller and arranged for him to speak that Thursday night in the large Shaarei Tziyon shul. He specifically asked permission from his rabbi in Shaarei Tzion at Rav Miller's request. Pinchos assured Rav Miller that he would take him after the shiur to his home in East Flatbush which was 25 minutes away.

On the appointed day, Pinchos saw a rabbi with a big black coat, big hat and beard walking up. The first feeling that flooded him was "What did I do to my friends! Here comes a typical 'Vuzvuz' (pejorative term for a religious Ashkenazic Jew)!" Pinchos and his friends were all young with it guys in their 20's, and they related disdainfully to rabbis who they considered relics of less progressive times -- despite the fact that they themselves all observed Shabbos. The twenty boys had grown up together since first grade and were best friends. They had only agreed to come because of their friendship with Pinchos.

When Rav Miller walked in, their disappointment was huge. One of the boys let loose a wisecrack, "My name is Chita and it means 'wheat'."

Rav Miller answered him sharply, "My name is Miller and a miller crushes wheat."

Rav Miller's sharp comment silenced the boys, but he knew not for long.

He asked the boys, "Do you want to talk about Rambam or the Knicks?" The youths were taken aback at the question.

The young men preferred to hear about the Knicks instead of the boring talk they imagined the rabbi would give.

Rav Miller stunned them when he delivered a five-minute speech on the Knicks ' latest moves and scores. Pinchos didn't know how to digest this strange phenomenon.

After five minutes, the rav moved on to the Rambam. The audience sat with their mouths open throughout the speech. They were surprised to see how articulate the rav was. They totally unexpected what they heard from him. Finally, after an hour of speaking, the rav finished the shiur. Pinchos drove Rav Miller home.

On the way, he asked him, "Rabbi, tell me truth! How did you know about the Knicks?"

Rav Miller mentioned that he had taken the garbage out for his wife, and noticed a corner of the newspaper sticking out of the bin. When he pushed the scrap of newspaper back in, he saw it was a piece on the Knicks. That's how he had become an expert on the Knicks.

Pinchos soon discovered that Rav Miller was an expert on any topic you asked him about. Rav Miller was an avid reader and could speedread. He possessed encyclopedic knowledge because he retained everything he saw. Whatever you asked him to speak about, he could hold forth on with ease.

The Uniqueness of the Thursday Night Shiur

The Sephardic youths returned for the following ten weeks, and then the class moved to a classroom in the Mirrer Yeshiva. Word got out and then several Ashkenazic boys joined the shiur from the yeshiva itself. The shiur grew. Soon there were 40-50 boys crowding into the classroom and not enough room for all. It was clear that another solution would have to be found.

Everyone found it incomprehensible how Rav Miller could talk to Ashkenazic youths learning in yeshiva and young modern Sephardi adults in the workforce, and each felt he was addressing their most important questions and doubts.

Thirty four years later, after Rav Miller's levaya, Pinchos mentioned to Rav Miller's grandson. "I had asked Hashem to lift a chair or make a ball go through the window to show me He was listening and that He really was there. But Hashem decided to answer me differently. He told me, 'I'll send you one man in my universe who can show you Who I am.' That man was Rav Miller. Over the past 30 years, Rav Miller not only taught me to know there is a Hashem, but I feel it as clearly as my own existence."

What was so special about Rav Miller's shiurim? For one, he fearlessly spoke out on every topic you could think of. Although his recurrent themes were about seeing Hashem in nature and how every creation testifies to its creator, he talked about everything under the sun. Bringing up a Jewish child. Obtaining fear of Hashem. Recognizing when the yetzer hora is moving things. Shmiras Haloshon. Utilizing one's free will. A man' s greatness. What is Chesed. It's difficult to be a disbeliever. Benefits of misfortune. The Afterlife. Everything happens because of the Jews. Reply to missionaries. Tshuva is a Gift.

Rav Miller spoke about the wonderful world which Hashem had created. He brought the puff-ball of the dandelion to class and explained all the wisdom inherent in the lowly weed. His students sat there agog, and realized for the first time that only G-d could have made this creation. He did the same with apples, oranges, ragweed, flowers and even humble creations that most people hadn't given a thought to.

He talked about loving Hashem. "Who is the one you have to love like yourself?" he asked his audience. It is Hashem. He became excited when describing how Hashem feeds all his creations. He explained how the entire process from egg to adult chicken was just a six week process. This quick process enabled the world's population to be fed.

A thousand people sometimes attended his shiur. He would unaffectedly say to them, "I want you all to say, "I love you Hashem!" They would get up and say it too. He not only made you say how you loved Hashem, he made you feel it too.

One close disciple who listened to hundreds of his Thursday night shiurim explained the impact they had on him: "There is no question that due to him, my emuna of Hashem is clear. As sure as I see myself, I see Hashem."

He emanated love for all Jews and even non-Jews to a certain degree. He was a universal Jewish solvent. There was no difference in his love and reverence for different Jewish communities. He frequently praised the Sephardic community for their reverence to their Torah sages and saw virtue in all of them.

Another theme he spoke about frequently in his Thursday night shiur was concern and respect for one's fellow man. If you blow your horn late at night to call someone to come out, he said you were a robber, because you were depriving the neighbors of sleep. If you're going to selichos early and talking with your friends and making noise, better you shouldn't go. He bid his listeners that if they pass a vegetable store and a piece of fruit fell onto the floor - they should pick it up no less than if it was a million dollars. The fruit was equivalent to the man's money, and since a Jew has to be concerned for his fellow man, he has to make sure his possessions were safe from injury.

If you pass a home, Rav Miller averred, you can see from the outside whether someone lives there or not. If the windows are broken and the house is dirty and unkempt, no one is home. But if the house is in good shape and there's a clean, orderly garden, you know someone is living there. In the same way, the orderly and meaningful arrangement of the world testified to Hashem's creation and management of it. He spoke about one after the other phenomenon in the world, and kept showing you how they were just imprints of G-d's genius touch.

He also spoke extensively on themes from Tenach, like the purpose of exile, the Avos, the downfall of Korach, the lessons to be derived from Scriptural personalities, and Jewish holidays. The shiur was usually an hour long, but no less interesting was the half hour at the end when Rav Miller took questions from the audience on anything they wanted to ask.

Pinchos was mesmerized. He felt the rabbi had opened his eyes. Instead of satisfying him, though, it made him feel even more thirsty. He asked Rav Miller if he could meet him privately. He thought he was being pushed off when the rabbi invited him to join him for his 7:15 walk in the morning. But Pinchos went and was rewarded with riveting discussions about life and a person's role in the world. The two would walk along the sidewalk and Rav Miller would point out wonders Hashem had created just for their pleasure.

Pinchos gazed at these commonplace miracles, seeing them for the first time. "You cannot see electricity," Rav Miller told him, "but you know that it's there because if you stick your finger into the socket, you'll get a shock. That's how we have to understand Hashem's presence. Whatever we look at shows us that He's there."

When his own congregants heard about the riveting Thursday night shiur, they too wanted to attend. But Rav Miller insisted that they keep to their gemora study at night.

Rav Miller on Tape

When the Thursday night shiur still numbered 50 boys, two brothers who were regular attendees made plans to continue their yeshiva studies in Israel.

They asked Pinchos to tape the class and their parents would pick it up every Friday from him and send it to them in Israel. Pinchos was glad to do it.

Then a short time later, someone else asked Pinchos for a copy. After that, the requests rapidly multiplied. Finally there was no way out but to buy a special reel machine that recorded the rabbi and copied his speech onto cassettes.

Rav Miller tapes began to reach the wide public in 1972.

The shiur continued to grow and finally was moved to the Sephardic Institute at 511 Avenue R. At that point, 100-150 people were coming a week.

One strange phenomenon that many of those who attended his shiur reported was that each felt Rav Miller was specifically speaking to him. Many times listeners told their friends "How did the Rav know what was happening to me? How did he know I was having problems with my boss?"

The shiur moved to the Achiezer shul when the Sephardic Institute burnt down. The number of attendees continued to grow. They reached 300 and at one point zoomed up to 1000.

At the same time, Pinchos's tape production was burgeoning. At first, he needed two copying machines, then he bought another one. He had to draft his children to help produce and send out all the tapes every week throughout New York and the U.S. He sent a tape to a French lady who translated the contents to another 300 women. Tapes were sent to rabbis in South Africa who lectured their congregations on the themes Rav Miller propounded and started tape libraries for the benefit of their congregants.

The tape production of Rav Miller's lectures was finally streamlined and done professionally.

From 1967 to 2001, over 2,500 tapes were produced of Rav Miller's Thursday night shiurim -- in addition to numerous other shiurim which he gave on gemora and mussar. Hundreds of thousands of tapes were sold whose impact on people's lives was immeasurable. It should be noted that although today, listening to cassette recordings of famous speakers is a common phenomenon in the Torah community, Rav Miller was the first whose shiurim were publicly disseminated.

The Shul Moves

The neighborhood in East Flatbush had been deteriorating for several years. Things came to a head in 1975, when Rav Miller together with the congregation decided to move the congregation to Ocean Parkway near the Mir Yeshiva. It was an unavoidable step for the congregation, but fortunately, it also gave Rav Miller a wider purview in his efforts to disseminate Torah.

A house was bought at 1821 Ocean Parkway, a mere half block from the Mir Yeshiva. The building was renovated into a shul with 190 seats for men and 100 seats for ladies. Forty families of Rav Miller's most dedicated congregants made the move together with him. It was decided to change the name of shul from Young Israel of Rugby Park to Beis Yisroel Torah Center, although here too, there was no sign on the outside advertising the new house of worship.

During that year there was an exodus of Syrian Jews to Deal, a sprawling suburban town in New Jersey. Real estate plummeted its lowest for the first time in many years. Rav Miller encouraged his congregants to buy homes as close to the Mir Yeshiva as possible.

The following year, there was another exodus of Syrian Jews from Deal to Ocean Parkway, after many who had moved missed New York. Prices of houses rocketed, but by then, Rav Miller's congregants were all living in the neighborhood. Divine providence had lowered prices just that year so Rav Miller could bring his congregation to a new neighborhood where their Torah study and spiritual growth was given a new impetus.

Now the Thursday night shiur was held in Rav Miller's own shul. His own congregants could enjoy hearing the shiur, since Rav Miller decided to repeat it again Shabbos afternoon.

Now that Rav Miller's own congregation was within reach, many Sephardim who had faithfully attended his shiurim decided to join the shul.

With the time, between 15-20% of the shul's membership was Sephardic, with the rest comprising Ashkenazim. The shul had an interesting mix of second and third-generation Americans formed from young new families and old-timers who had been with Rav Miller for 25 years. Despite the differences in minhagim and background, the shul was united under Rav Miller's leadership and a commitment to Torah study.

Changes were also taking place in the Thursday night shiur. From having an exclusive Sephardic and Litvish audience, slowly chassidim from Williamsburg, Monroe and Boro Park began to attend. At various times, up to half the audience was chassidic. A packed van would travel in from Mt. Kisco too. Modern Orthodox listeners and baalei tshuva dotted the audience. The whole spectrum of Torah Jewry was present, and everyone felt he was talking to them.

The fame which the Thursday night shiur brought Rav Miller, had an impact on his shul. It became a matter of pride to be a member of Rav Miller's shul. Eventually, his shul prided itself on being a unique congregation composed of Sephardim, Litvaks and Chassidim. What bound them all was their reverence for Rav Miller and their dedication to Torah study.

Later Years

In 1983, Rav Miller's son Rav Shmuel opened his yeshiva and Rav Miller began to give discourses and vaadim to the students. The yeshiva's name was a take-off of the shul "Beis Yisroel."

In retrospect, the rav's multifold activities were incredible, especially when one considered his age. He was 57 when he wrote his first book. He was almost 60 years old when he began to teach his congregants gemora in 1967.

He was 65 when his first tapes began to spread throughout the Jewish world. His public works began to soar at a time when most people are beginning to wind down. His greatist accomplishments over the past 30 years took place when he was in his 60's, 70's and 80's - and remained unabated until his death at the age of 93.

This could only partially be attributed to his vigilance about health. He carefully watched his health and made it an unassailable practice to eat healthy and walk every day for an hour and a half. When he reached old age, he slowed this down to an hour, but still faithfully maintained this exercise period. Indeed, throughout his life, he was hardly ever sick. His good state of health was also due to the exceptional care which his wife Ethel lavished on him and her efforts to ensure that the rav was not inundated by community work.

When he was in his late 80's, Rav Miller had to have a heart valve replaced. He asked the surgical team if they weren't afraid to operate on a person close to 90. The doctors told him they weren't afraid to operate on him since he was a healthy person. "Age is not a determining factor as far as you're concerned," they assured him. He had the surgery done and within a few weeks was back to his regular activities.

He conveyed the importance of taking care of their health to his congregants too. When a congregant brought his daughter for a blessing before she went to study in Gateshead, Rav Miller told her pointedly, "Eat three good meals a day, get plenty of sleep, and watch out for English germs."

Rav Miller's mental and physical capacities remained strong and lucid until the end. He mentioned shortly before his passing that his earliest memories go back to when he was two. His exceptional memory never failed him.

Final Illness

Rav Miller reached his 93rd birthday brimming with plans to publish more books. In March he published the final book to his commentary on chumash. He was preparing three volumes on Aggados of Shas. He was working on three volumes on the Holocaust. He had prepared outlines to finish his history series. He had taped shiurim on Shaarei Teshuva, Mesilas Yesharim, Chovos Halevovos, and Pirkei Avos which he was thinking of putting into written form, including 83, 1 1/2 hour tapes of shiurim he had given on Mesilas Yesharim. He had 49 tapes on Perek Chelek of Sanhedrin. He prayed often asking for Hashem to give him more years so he could continue to disseminate Torah and inspiration for Torah living to the public.

A few weeks before Pesach, he was diagnosed with a benign form of leukemia. The shul began to recite Tehilim throughout the day. His congregants were relieved to see that Rav Miller, although weakened, could still carry his daily load. The congregants kept away except for emergencies, since they knew that the rav needed to rest.

Pesach passed in high spirits. Rav Miller felt well enough to give a shiur on the seventh day of Pesach.

After praying mincha intensely at his shul on Wednesday, April 18, a great weakness overcame him and he was hospitalized. His family attended him around the clock.

The doctors optimistically thought that they could discharge him by the following Sunday, and his congregation eagerly anticipated his return. But the following day, he grew progressively weaker. Despite his precarious state, he was calm and reposed. The Next World had been such a concrete concept to him throughout his life that he faced death with the same calmness that one faces stepping through a door.

On that day, his wife and children came to receive his final blessing. His oldest son Eliezer spent two hours talking with him privately that day.

Rav Miller told him not to cry when he goes, because he had a good life. He instructed him where to find the deed to the grave which he purchased in Har Hazeisim, and where he could find a letter he had written to the family.

And then Rav Miller began to review all the kindnesses which Hashem had done for him throughout his life. He recalled his good fortune to have left Baltimore to attend yeshiva in New York, his arrival in Slabodka in 1932, studying under Rav Eizik Sher and Rav Avraham Grodzinski, and the fact he was able to leave Chelsea for New York to be the mashgiach in Chaim Berlin.

He mentioned the Chovos Halevovos, which had been his guidebook through life. He told his son, "If you want to be happy, learn Chovos Halevovos. And if you want to be really happy, learn on top of that Mesilas Yesharim."

The hospital ward filled with followers and family as word spread that the rav's situation was serious. Hatzala members who were present called the Chevra Kadisha. The waiting room was also full of people reciting Tehillim, many of them Satmar chassidim who had been among his most fervent followers. More than a minyan of men were present in the room with him, including his children and a nephew.

Darkness had descended and several hours slowly ticked by. Rav Miller mentioned that an overwhelming weakness was overcoming him. He then recited Kriyas Shema slowly, word by word, thinking deeply of each word's meaning. Then he counted Sefira. He asked for a drink of water and recited a blessing over it. Then he recited Borei Nefoshos with great concentration. "Blessed are You, Hashem, our G-d, King of the Universe, Creator of numerous living things and what they lack. Everything he has created is in order to sustain the life of every being. Blessed is the Life of the Universe." This common prayer summed up in a few short words what had been the focus of Rav Miller' s life.

A short time after midnight his soul departed. The date was 27 Nissan, 5761 (April 20, 2001).

Funeral and Eulogies

The levaya was delayed until Sunday because the aron could not be transported to Israel before Shabbos. For two days around the clock, the congregants in the shul organized watches of people saying Tehillim next to the aron at the funeral home.

The levaya started from his shul, the Beis Yisroel Torah Center, at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, 29 Nissan (April 22). Rav Miller had rarely left the close environment of his shul and shiurim. 30,000 people were standing outside the shul to pay their final respects to Rav Miller. Admirers of Rav Miller flew in from Detroit and St. Louis. Hookups were made to the Mirrer Yeshiva and the Achiezer Sephardic shul a block down on Ocean Parkway.

Hespedim were delivered by Rav Shmuel Birnbaum, the rosh yeshiva of the Mir Yeshiva in the United States; Rav Chaim Pinchos Scheinberg, rosh yeshiva of Torah Or; the Novominsker Rebbe; Rav Yosef Rosenblum, rosh yeshiva of Shaarei Yosher; two of Rav Miller's sons-in-law, Rav Elchonon Brog, maggid shiur in the Yeshiva Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin and Rav Yerucham Lishinsky, maggid shiur in the Mirrer yeshiva; Rav Miller's son, Rav Shmuel Miller, rosh yeshiva of Beis Yisroel yeshiva; and Rav E. Raful of the New York Syrian community.

Rav Miller's aron was then accompanied by his two sons, a son-in-law and two grandsons to Eretz Yisroel.

In Eretz Yisroel

An enormous levaya with an estimated 25,000 in attendance was held the following day in Yerushalayim, starting out from the Mir Yeshiva.

The first hesped was delivered by the Mir rosh yeshiva, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, who lamented the great loss the Torah community is suffering by the passing of such a great man and educator. He asked the deceased to go up before the Heavenly Throne and beg for divine assistance to prevent the Torah community from being affected by the decadent atmosphere widespread in the world.

Rav Miller's son-in-law, Rav Herschel Kenarek, mentioned the great merit he had in being close to his father-in-law for the past thirty years.

"There was nothing he did without thinking through it carefully." He spoke about Rav Miller's extreme joy of living and his gratitude to Hashem for life.

Rav Moshe Sternbuch, called out: "A great Torah prince has fallen in Israel. People returned to Judaism because of his tapes. He merited to have true Torah views... When Moshe Rabbenu passed away, Hashem lamented: "Who can take the place of this one who feared G-d?" The same may be said about the deceased. It is a good sign when one dies on Shabbos eve, for it indicates that throughout his life he prepared himself for his departure to the World to Come."

Rav Boruch Rosenberg, rosh yeshiva Slabodka in Bnei Brak said: "We are standing before the aron of a great man. Can we assess his greatness? He was a great servant of Hashem. He did not waste even one moment of his life. When one wanted to meet him, it was impossible to find time, even for urgent issues. For decades, he has brought multitudes to merit in a remarkable manner. I don't know if anyone was as great as he in how he influenced the public to virtue. He influenced hundreds and perhaps thousands of Jews to draw closer to their Father in heaven. His success was unprecedented. A person will return to Judaism only if he is told the absolute truth: that there is a Master to the universe. And that is precisely what he did his entire life."

His son, Rav Shmuel, rosh yeshivas Beis Yisroel, eulogized him: "He taught many and influenced many to study Torah. His strength stemmed from the strength of Chovos Halevovos, which was his guidebook. He was a man of truth."

Rav Shmuel Yaakov Bornstein, rosh yeshivas Chevron Geula yeshiva, defined the deceased as a "giant among giants." He said, "Today is a difficult day for Yisroel. He spread Torah with all of his might throughout his life. He was `exclusively for Hashem' and utilized every moment of his life for Torah."

The last eulogy was delivered by Rav Mattisyahu Solomon, the mashgiach of the Lakewood yeshiva: "All of his life, he was like Avrohom Ovinu -- promulgating truth, belief in G-d and love of one's fellow. He proclaimed to the entire world that there is a Creator of the universe, and thousands and tens of thousands gathered around him to hear his teachings."

At the end of the eulogies, a massive throng accompanied him to his final resting place on Har Hazeisim.

Successor and Farewell

Rav Miller had refused to suggest a successor to himself. He told his son that it would be up to the baalebatim in the shul to choose a fitting successor.

After the funeral, the presidium mournfully met and decided to appoint Rav Miller's grandson Rav Eliyahu Brog as the new rav. Rav Brog, 42, had studied his entire life in the Mirrer yeshiva. He had spent many years davening in his grandfather's shul and listening to his shiurim and lectures. He was a faithful follower of his grandfather's worldview and goals.

With the appointment of rabbonus, Rav Brog also undertook the heavy load of his grandfather's shiurim.

After Rav Miller's passing, his family found a letter he had left behind for them. Like all of his writings, it was a masterpiece which movingly expressed his loving farewell to his family and congregation.

He told his children how he loved them all and how much nachas they had given him.

He reiterated how he thanked Hashem for all the blessings He had given him.

"I cannot say the end of His praises for all He has given me from the beginning to the end of my life."

He exhorted his family to continue going in the Torah's way, and to thank Hashem for all the good He does to them, including prior kindnesses done to the family.

He thanked many people in his congregation who had dealt with him kindly, mentioning a few by name. He thanked select people who were not his congregants but who had helped him through the years.

He bid his family to go in the ways of mussar, observe the ways of piety, and keep away from the ways of the goyim.

He ended his letter asking that Hashem bless them together with faithful Jews everywhere -- and that they forever be successful in their spiritual and earthly affairs.

Did You Ask Hashem First?

One student asked Rav Miller for a blessing for his wife and the child each time his wife was expecting, He felt he could rely on Rav Miller's blessing. First Rav Miller ascertained that he was also asking Hakodesh Boruch Hu for His blessing with regularity, Rav Miller happily complied and gave his blessing.

No Charity For Lions

One student met Rav Miller on the street on Purim. He asked the student's age, and then, subtracting it from 120, wished him that many more happy Purims.

The students' little son, who was wearing a lion suit, stuck out his hand and asked the rav for tzedaka. Rav Miller declined saying that he only gives tzedaka to people but not to lions.

Confronted by a Hoodlum

Thirty-eight years ago, Rav Miller attended a large demonstration in Manhattan together with students from yeshivos all over New York protesting that the Brisker Rav had been defamed by a Mizrachi rav.

On the way home, he invited a student to walk with him through Manhattan towards Brooklyn.

As they walked through a deserted side street, a tall thug quickly approached the two and stuck his hand out ominously asking for money. The man wasn't a downhearted panhandler and he looked like he might grab Rav Miller's wallet if the rav took it out to give him money. However, Rav Miller and his student realized that if they wouldn't give the man a donation, he might become violent and hurt them. Nor could they run away and turn to someone for safety because they were on a deserted side street.

The frightened student looked towards Rav Miller for guidance. Suddenly he heard Rav Miller talk to the man with words of gibberish. The street tough looked at him, and again demanded that he give him money. Rav Miller calmly repeated his earlier mumble-jumble. The man asked him for money more threateningly. Rav Miller again calmly said the same incomprehensible words.

The street tough became irked. A few more times he demanded money and each time he was responded to with the strange, incomprehensible words. He finally became so frustrated that he shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

Rav Miller and the student quickly left the scene. When they were a safe distance away, his student asked him what he had said. He knew it wasn't Hebrew or Yiddish.

Rav Miller explained that when he studied in Lithuania, he used to take long walks around the nearby countryside. Over the time, he had picked up an odd dialect of Lithuanian. Rav Miller was afraid that the man who was accosting them might recognize French or Spanish, so he chose to speak in a strange dialect that he knew the man wouldn't be able to understand. He had hoped that the man would become frustrated at not being able to communicate until he walked away -- which is exactly what happened. The brilliance of Rav Miller was that he thought of this response within mere seconds, and when he spoke the words in Lithuanian, he was totally calm and in control.

He reminded his student of one of his frequent sayings -- that a person has to thank Hashem even for his thoughts.

Teaching Passages About "Shedim"

In the beginning, when Rav Miller's gemora study group would encounter sections dealing with "shedim" or supernatural phenomenon in the gemora, he would say, "We'll skip the next ten lines because we need more yiras shomayim for this."

The Year He Stopped Selling Chometz

Rav Miller didn't take money for selling chometz before Pesach. One year the rebetzin announced that he would only be selling the chometz of his congregants, but not of outsiders.

Only his close students knew the reason why. A prominent rav had moved into the neighborhood who was poor and needed to supplement his living. Rav Miller decided that he wouldn't arrange the chometz sales for outsiders so they would go to the new rav and he would have an income before the holiday.

Utilize the Opportunity to Influence Others

One day Rav Miller was walking in the Slabodka yeshiva in Lithuania when he came across a young man who he had known in Yeshiva University. This young man had been a light-headed fellow and a joker. But here he was, in the Slabodka yeshiva of all places! Rav Miller went over to the young man, gave him a "Sholom Aleichem" and asked what he was doing there. The bochur told him, "Do you remember that day that we met in the corridor in Yeshiva University? You looked at me and said, 'When will you make something of yourself and take life seriously?' Your words penetrated deeply, and shook me up. That was my turning point."

Rav Miller would tell this story to his students and then add that if they had an opportunity to influence another for the good, or even an opportunity to just say something thought-provoking, they should do it even if they're not sure the other person will accept it.

"Once it goes down the hatch, it's there," Rav Miller would say. "It might take a week, a month or a day, but it never leaves the person's brain. One never knows when it will bear fruits."

Rabbi Avigdor Miller zecher tzadik livrocha

[Anonymous]

Ten years ago in Jerusalem, I was sitting one night with a friend and studying "Praise, My Soul" by Rabbi Avigdor Miller.

We had both grown up in the Midwest. Our husbands were both involved in day-long Torah study and we were among the lucky few whose husbands had come to study in Jerusalem and eventually decided to settle here.

Being spiritual types, we decided we wanted to do something to upgrade our kavanos while davening. I had suggested Rabbi Miller's book "Praise, My Soul" and she was amenable to the idea. We decided to first do the Shemoneh Esreh since that was unquestionably the most important prayer of all. Over a year, we completed the chapter, and then the busyness of our lives took over and our study partnership came to an end.

But the inspiration from Rabbi Miller's book did not. I had copied some of his comments into my prayer book and as I recited my prayers every morning, my eyes passed over his inimical comments and vitalized the words I was reciting.

One day the realization hit me that Rabbi Miller's works had had a large impact on my life. His book on prayer had given life to my daily davening. Being an avid history fan, his history books had revised my entire concept of Jewish history gained from numerous faulty sources -- some of them regretfully picked up in the Jewish schools I attended. And his three books on Jewish hashkafa had won a Jewish girl in the Midwest to the cause of Torah 30 years ago. One could say about Rabbi Miller that his books were written to address the needs of his generation rather than express his own personal Torah achievements.

At that moment I promised myself that when Rav Miller will be called away by the heavenly academy, I would sit down and write the story of how much Rabbi Miller impacted on one Jewish life. That hour has come.

Long ago, in the faraway years of the mid-1900's -- a time of Jewish uncertainty and confusion too inconceivable for today's youth to comprehend -- you were considered Orthodox if you kept the basic guidelines of Shabbos and kashrus, and your father went to shul every day. You were considered fanatically Orthodox if you wore tznius clothes and didn't go to movies. Going to a religious day school was a relatively new phenomenon which could not be taken for granted.

I still remember the principal of the local yeshiva telling my father, "You keep Shabbos and kashrus -- why are you sending your kids to the local public school?" and my father telling him that his limited income didn't allow for him to pay a private school tuition. Many if not most of my classmates in yeshiva were on "scholarships." In those days, even Orthodox parents had to be enticed to send their kids to Jewish day schools. Most of our parents had studied in public schools and didn't think they were so terrible.

It was only over many years that the critical need for a day school education became obvious. You could see the difference in those families where the older kids studied in public schools because there were no day school classes for them, and the younger kids studied in the yeshiva day school which had in the meantime opened. In most cases, the oldest kids became irreligious and the youngest ones stayed religious.

As if the times were not bad enough, we were growing up in the Midwest, far away from the intensive Jewish-permeated atmosphere of New York. I remember several Chassidim from New York (just a little closer than the moon) who came to our town for an event one Shabbos. A few of us girls asked to be addressed by them and one agreed. While we gawked at his Medieval Age-vintage shtreimel, he enthusiastically praised us for retaining our attachment to Judaism in the parched spiritual desert we were living in. We walked out of the shiur uncomprehending. 1960's Midwest Orthodox Jewish life was all that existed, as far as we knew.

Most of us students were like the fragile last autumn leaves dangling from a tree caught in an autumn storm. The winds that swirled around us unrelentingly assaulted our tiny connection to our tree. Many if not most of our relatives were irreligious. We were born into a society where the newly invented TV, college studies, English literature and belief in our superior western civilization were stock articles of our faith. Looking at the many, large Conservative and Reform Jewish populations around us in contrast to the few, small Orthodox shuls, we felt like the last of the Mohicans. Over our shoulders we could see the distancing gray clouds of the Holocaust, some of us still heard screams at night, and sometimes we wondered what it all meant.

It was the days when interurban travel and phone calls were still expensive and what you saw in your community was all that existed. I remember self-assuredly asking my Hebrew teacher in 8th grade why we have to learn the Hebrew language since "who speaks it anyhow?"

Most of us barely tolerated our Jewish studies, and nearly all of us rated it lower on the totem pole than our general studies. Chumash often seemed like Foreign Language 101, Rashi was a course in hieroglyphics and shorthand, and Yeshaya was a little like tackling Shakespeare. Sheer habit dictated by the school's policy got us used to davening every day although we rarely understood what we were saying and tried to finish as fast as possible. Hebrew appeared to be about as useful as Latin and Greek. The girls from the better homes dutifully did the homework, while the other ones sat in the back, chewed gum, read teenage magazines and discussed the latest movies they went to. The battle of the hemline remained a daily skirmish despite our educators' best efforts.

No one thought of eventually leaving the confines of our town for more than seminary, and we imagined we would have to raise our own families in the same pain-in-the-neck isolation and alienation from general society that had typified our upbringing.

Being a religious Jew was often a series of No's and You can't's - we weren' t able to go here, we couldn't wear that, we couldn't watch this, we shouldn 't read that. You can't do anything at all on Shabbos, unless you were willing to walk a mile to Bnos to play some boring games and hear the counselor tell a story you had heard three times before.

Our dedicated principal and teachers undoubtedly tried to inculcate Yiddishkeit the best they knew, but the times were difficult and the temptations immense.

During those bleak times, Rabbi Miller's work "Rejoice O Youth" fell into my hands and opened my eyes. Today I would call it a work of Hashkafa, but at that time, the word was unknown to us. Rabbi Miller addressed every single issue that was central to our lives and that had been troubling us, and he unrelentingly examined it under a Torah microscope. Meaning of life, the emptiness of western life, the mirage of romance, the falsehood of the religions, Secularr Zionism, evolution, Reform and Conservative, Bible critics, and sundry negative influences were all thoroughly treated in his book. He was the first to tackle the subject of the emptiness of western society and western values and dispel the subliminal inferior complex we felt towards Jews less old-fashioned than us. He mercilessly and sarcastically bludgeoned all these convincing, impressive sounding beliefs and trends so that you weren't left with a kernel of doubt.

Immense of an accomplishment as this was, he did even more. Strange as it is to say it, he brought G-d into the mosaic of our lives. We kept mitzvos, we studied Torah, we translated the words of the prayers, we knew dikduk, we could read a Rashi. We just didn't have much of an idea of how all this relates to G-d, Who we vaguely knew was somehow supposed to be a presence in our lives.

The idea that G-d had created an apple to give us humans pleasure was a shockingly new idea. The idea that G-d wants us to enjoy His world, and keeping mitzvos and studying Torah is just our way of saying thank-you, was a stunning revelation. He introduced new concepts which we never heard before: True Awareness, the Jews' unique role and challenges, our great potential.

He challenged us: "It is within your power to gain a real Awareness of G-d's imminence. This transforms a man's life; he becomes optimistic and energetic, and his potential abilities begin to emerge and assert themselves." We had never heard before someone equating success and optimizing our potential with gaining an awareness of Hashem.

This book (and later books of his) was a major influence on the lives of many of my contemporaries. It gave us the backing to look western society in the eye and conclude "the Emperor has no clothes." Convinced of its truth, many of us started paying more attention to our Jewish studies, and when we grew older, embarked onto seminary instead of college, and married a ben Torah instead of an accountant.

The Hashkafa content was the salient feature of all of his books. When Rabbi Miller's synopsis of Torah history, "Behold a People", came out, I remember wondering "What can he say about Jewish history down to the Bayis Sheini which we haven't learned 5 times before in Chumash, Parshas Hashavu and Jewish History classes!"

I was stunned at his originality when I read the book. His commentary was based almost exclusively on simple p'shat reading of the Torah's text, and he only rarely quoted the commentaries and Midrash. He kept pounding away at your psyche, trying to inculcate his fundamental concepts of gadlus ha'odom in understanding the Avos and the following generations. It was unbelievable how much understanding of Hashem, the Avos, and the salient lessons of Jewish history could be gleaned from a simple reading of his book. To read his commentary was to feel that you had never learned the material before. Rabbi Miller's focus and simplicity was unique.

I felt the same excitement when his sequels Torah Nation and Exalted People came out, which continued Jewish history until the times of the Gaonim. These seforim had the advantage of drawing upon Talmudic sources to explain the main Jewish leaders and Jewish events of the period covered from a perspective of yiras shomayim, which had been lacking from my Jewish history classes. How surprising to discover that Rabbi Akiva had been traveling around to encourage the Jewish exiles and better their spiritual and physical state rather than collect funds for a new revolution against the Roman Empire, the standard drivel that appears in Jewish history textbooks. Among the concepts he clearly explained in the book was yeridas hadoros, the greatness of the sages, and the development of the Oral Law.

"Praise, My Soul", Rabbi Miller's commentary on the siddur, had the same Hashkafa-slanted explanation. I was feeling frustration with the stupor which usually descended when I began praying Shemoneh Esrei.

He knew how to bring G-d down to you so you felt He was real and tangible. He gave you the impetus and the wherewithal to form your own relationship with Hashem. A glimpse into what being a Torah-true Jew means.

He helped you break the bonds of superficiality and artificiality to reach a genuine, meaningful, deep connection to Hashem.

He trumpeted his principles and beliefs without hesitation or stammering. The Jews were chosen. Evolution is a foolish deception. No apologies. No circumlocutions. No hedging. No doubts.

Today's generation has spawned a number of powerful machzirim b'tshuva who are able to instill their listeners with similar convictions and emotions. But for many years and for many American Orthodox Jews, Rabbi Miller was the only one who could do this.

He is no longer here, but his words continue to resound in me and in the hearts of the tens of thousands who are dedicated Torah Jews due to him.