By D. Sofer
This article originally appeared in Yated Neeman, Monsey NY. and is reprinted here with their permission
Rav Binyomin Beinush Finkel's name is synonymous with the Mirrer Yeshiva in Yerushalayim, and rightfully so. He served as its rosh yeshiva for more than a quarter of a century, and not only did he achieve personal greatness in Torah during this time, but he also imbued thousands of students with the desire to achieve great heights in their learning.
Rav Beinush's story traces its roots back to the founding of the Mirrer Yeshiva in Europe, more than 180 years ago.
BRIEF HISTORY OF MIR
Up until about approximately 200 years ago, Jews worldwide learned Torah in batei medrash and shuls, and not in formal institutions.
The first formal yeshiva was founded by Rav Chaim of Volozhin in 5566, and as a result was called "the mother of all yeshivos." It had dining and sleeping facilities, entrance requirements and a rigorous study program.
In the wake of Rav Chaim's appeal that others follow his example, many similar yeshivos were founded, particularly in Lithuania and Poland. The most famous of these yeshivos was the Mir.
The Mirrer Yeshiva was founded in 5578 by one of the prominent residents of the quiet and small Polish town of Mir, Rav Shmuel Tiktinsky. After Rav Shmuel's petira, his youngest son, Rav Chaim Leib Tiktinsky, was appointed rosh yeshiva. He was succeeded by his son, Rav Avrohom, who brought Rav Eliyahu Boruch Kamai into the yeshiva.
In 5663, Rav Kamai's daughter married Rav Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, who in time became the rosh yeshiva of the Mir.
During World War I, when the city of Mir was located on the battlefront, the yeshiva fled to the Russian city of Stoivitz, and then to Polteva where its students suffered from hunger and want.
With the Communist Revolution in 5677, the yeshiva suffered even more hardship, but continued to burgeon from a spiritual standpoint.
At the end of the war, two of the yeshiva's students convinced the Russian authorities to let the yeshiva leave Russia and return to Poland. For a while the yeshiva was forced to remain in Vilna, returning to Mir only in 5681.
Upon their return to Mir, the students and staff found the yeshiva's building in a state of shambles. However, Rav Eliezer Yehuda proceeded to reestablish the yeshiva both physically and spiritually.
In time, the Mirrer Yeshiva became a large and vibrant Torah center to which students from all over the world flocked.
When World War II broke out, the yeshiva fled to Siberia and then to Japan, where it remained until the end of the war.
After all of the students had received visas to Japan, Rav Eliezer Yehuda proceeded to Eretz Yisroel, where he hoped he could secure certificates that would enable the entire yeshiva to make aliya. His family joined him on that journey.
Immediately after his arrival in Eretz Yisroel, Rav Eliezer Yehuda made strenuous efforts to secure those certificates. However, the British authorities who were in control of the country at that time staunchly refused to grant them. While in Eretz Yisroel, he remained in close touch with the yeshiva, which was still in Shanghai, guiding it during that difficult period, despite his distance from it.
In 5704, he opened the Mir-Yerushalayim Yeshiva with 10 students, heading it until his petira on 19 Tammuz 5725. It was then that his son, Rav Beinush, assumed leadership of the yeshiva.
SHOULDERING THE BURDEN
Rav Beinush was born in Mir on Yom Kippur 5672. When Rav Beinush was only 9, his father would study five pages of Gemara with him every morning. After each study session, his father would ask him to recite a chiddush, and then to repeat the material studied the previous day.
Rav Beinush acquired most of his Torah knowledge in the Mirrer Yeshiva, where he was one of its most outstanding students. In 5691, he studied under the Chofetz Chaim, and in 5694-95 under Rav Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik of Brisk.
Not long after Rav Beinush's arrival in Eretz Yisroel, Rav Eliezer Yehuda sent him to the Chazon Ish to clarify the difficult question of when Shabbos fell in Japan, where the yeshiva resided. Since daytime in Japan ends 18 hours after it begins in Eretz Yisroel, the question was whether Shabbos should be observed the same day it begins in Eretz Yisroel, or by a difference of nearly one day.
After that encounter, Rav Beinush drew very close to the Chazon Ish, who considered him a gadol b'Torah. Rav Beinush soon married the daughter of Rav Shmuel Greineman, the Chazon Ish's brother-in-law. The match was made by the Chazon Ish.
A half-a-year after his marriage, Rav Beinush began to deliver shiurim in the Beis Boruch Yeshiva in Yerushalayim, founded by his father. After the founding of the Mirrer Yeshiva, Rav Beinush delivered shiurim there, traveling from Bnei Brak to Yerushalayim every day. In 5725, he moved to Meah Shearim and began to head the yeshiva, and to support it financially.
In his capacity as rosh yeshiva, Rav Beinush revealed many remarkable traits and characteristics, although he strove to hide his greatness. His father-in-law, Rav Shmuel Greineman, regarded him as one of the lamed-vav hidden tzaddikim.
'RUCHNIUSDIK' GASHMIUS
Rav Beinush was famed for his integrity and honesty. His father-in-law relates: "When Rav Beinush first began to deliver shiurim in the Mir, he refused to be paid. However, after pressure was exerted on him to accept a salary, he yielded.
"Rav Eliezer Yehuda once told me that he noticed that Rav Beinush's salary always returned to the yeshiva's coffers in some way or another. I asked Rav Eliezer Yehuda how Rav Beinush subsisted, and he said, 'I once asked the Chazon Ish that very same question, and he replied: "I also don't know.""
Rav Beinush would even return the carfare the yeshiva gave him for his trips from Bnei Brak to the yeshiva.
A wealthy visitor once left a large sum of money on Rav Beinush's table, and then quickly left the house. Not wishing to make an issue of the matter, Rav Beinush quietly folded the bills and shoved them into a matchbox. Then he told a family member to run after the man and return his matchbox.
He was very fearful of violating the laws of interest. Although he was responsible for the millions of dollars that streamed into the yeshiva, he refused to conduct any financial arrangement that involved a heter iska. The yeshiva's material aspects, he maintained, had to be handled with kedusha.
Once, the yeshiva was offered a huge grant from a special fund so that it could build a new wing. Rav Beinush, however, feared that the transfer of the funds involved a heter iska and was wary of accepting the grant.
For many weeks, the yeshiva's administration attempted to devise a plan that would circumvent the heter. When the grant finally arrived, Rav Beinush went to the bank and, along with its director, examined the issue from every possible angle. After he was certain that it didn't involve a heter iska, he agreed to accept the grant. However, as he stood on line in the bank waiting to receive the money, he was suddenly overcome by tremendous fear.
"Nein," he determined then and there. "I won't accept it. I am afraid of violating a Torah prohibition."
A ROSH YESHIVA'S DEMANDS
Rav Beinush insisted that his students study one daf of Gemara a day, along with Rishonim. When he was told that certain students weren't enthusiastic about this idea, he said, "If my policy doesn't appeal to them, I'll adopt a new one, and offer stipends to whoever learns a daf a day."
At his levaya, many students attributed the vast quantity of material they had covered in the yeshiva to Rav Beinush's policy.
His sole aspiration was that his students achieve greatness in Torah. He would often remain awake at night, wondering how he could promote their progress.
MASTERY OVER EMOTIONS
Rav Beinush was very self-restrained and exerted unusual mastery over his emotions. Once a huge fire broke out in his house. Rav Beinush, however, wasn't fazed and calmly went about extinguishing it. Suddenly, he turned white as a sheet and rushed out the door.
What had caused him to behave so uncharacteristically? The fire had taken hold of the mezuza on the front door, and he couldn't remain inside the house any longer.
Although of his possessions were going up in flames, he ran outside and bought a new mezuza.
His brevity of speech and reticence were offshoots of his self-restraint, and the half-words and semi-phrases he sometimes uttered, such as "nu, nu" or "nein," were rife with meaning.
By the same token, he honed his own kind of idioms and felt that if an idea could be expressed in four words, there was no need to use 10.
BOLSTERING OTHERS' SELF-ESTEEM
Although Rav Beinush rarely expressed his own emotions, he was very sensitive to the needs and emotions of others.
One Rosh Hashana, as he was on his way to the Kosel to daven in the vasikin minyan, he met a poor and dejected Jew.
"Did you have a warm drink yet?" Rav Beinush asked him.
"Yes, but another cup wouldn't hurt," the man replied.
Rav Beinush, who was very particular about davening in the vasikin minyan, returned home with the man, offered him a drink and spoke with him for a long time, cheering him up and encouraging him. After the man left, Rav Beinush ran to the Kosel, making it in time for Shemoneh Esrei.
On another occasion, Rav Beinush arrived at his family's Seder at chatzos because he had been busy making shalom bayis between a bickering young couple.
Rav Beinush also made a special point of making simple people feel important and happy.
"The rosh yeshiva and I once walked down the street, immersed in a Torah conversation," a son-in-law related. "As his explanation of a particular Rav Akiva Eiger deepened, a simple person who davened in his minyan in the Meah Shearim shteiblach rushed over to him. Taking out a handful of tobacco, the man said, 'How's this?'
"Not bad,' the rosh yeshiva replied, as he inhaled the tobacco. 'But last week's tobacco was better.'
"The man, who was delighted by the attention showered on him by the rosh yeshiva, glowed. As soon as the man left, the rosh yeshiva continued where he had left off in his explanation of the Rav Akiva Eiger.
"As we neared the shteiblach, we passed a peddler who sold pins and needles.
"Anything special to sell today?' Rav Beinush asked him.
"The peddler's eyes lit up as he took out a packet of pins and needles. Rav Beinush examined it and then compared it to a regular packet.
"What's the difference?' he asked. Smilingly, the peddler began to explain the difference, proud that he had been able to teach the illustrious rosh yeshiva of Mir a lesson in pins and needles.
The rosh yeshiva bought a package - though he didn't need it. Then, placing it in his pocket, he turned to me and said, 'But Rav Akiva Eiger means...'"
A SIMPLE LIFESTYLE
From a material standpoint, Rav Beinush sufficed with the barest essentials. His house was sparsely furnished, containing only chairs, beds, a table, a bookshelf and basic kitchen appliances.
His daughters' weddings were also very modest and simple. One of the weddings was held on a Friday afternoon, and the wedding seuda was held on Friday night, primarily for family members. The other guests were served cake and soft drinks.
ANGER - WHAT'S THAT?
Rav Beinush never lost his temper, and to him, anger was an anomaly.
A Bais Yaakov student once consulted him about a particular marriage prospect. Rav Beinush highly praised the boy, and the match was finalized.
A few months later, the girl canceled the engagement, and then rudely rebuked Rav Beinush for having "misled" her.
Shortly afterward, she became engaged to another young man. A week before her wedding, Rav Beinush told his daughter, "Find out who is making her a Shabbos kalla celebration."
When his daughter learned that no one was planning such an event, he said, "Here's some money. Go out and buy whatever you need, and make her a Shabbos kalla party yourself."
LEARNING AND SIYATA D'SHMAYA
Rav Beinush tried to conceal his brilliance, but it was evident nonetheless. It is said that the foundations of his shiurim were very similar to those of Rav Nochum Partzovitz, (his sister's son-in-law), even though the two expressed themselves differently.
These two Torah giants held each other in high esteem. Thus, Rav Beinush would present his general shiur to Rav Nochum before delivering it in the yeshiva, while Rav Nochum would attend it and listen avidly.
Each shiur was finely polished and to the point. After the shiur, Mir's most outstanding students would approach Rav Nochum and discuss Rav Beinush's shiur with him.
As a tzaddik, Rav Beinush merited special siyata d'Shmaya.
In 5745, an embezzlement affair shocked the entire country. The night before the affair was publicized, Rav Beinush dreamt that such an affair would take place in his bank. Early the following morning, he withdrew all of his money from the bank, and thus saved the yeshiva's money.
Once, while he was on a trip to England on behalf of the yeshiva, the train on which he was riding overturned and many passengers were either injured or killed. The only coach that didn't swerve from the tracks was the one in which Rav Beinush was seated.
HIS PETIRA
In Cheshvan 5750, Rav Beinush fell gravely ill. Nonetheless, he made untold efforts to conceal his illness from his family.
When his situation deteriorated, his students prayed for his recovery. But on the 18th of Shevat, 5750, his pure soul returned to its Maker.
His levaya, which was attended by thousands, set out from the Mirrer Yeshiva, and headed toward Har Hamenuchos. He was buried in the plot of the Mirrer roshei yeshiva, beside his father, Rav Eliezer Yehuda, and hisbrother-in-law, Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz.
Mir was Rav Binyomin Beinush Finkel's very essence. He instilled his students with the desire to achieve greatness in Torah, and the many thousands of students who studied under him over the years confirm that his efforts bore fruit.