Reflections from Rabbi Kahn’s Talmidot on his Second Yahrzeit

Precision. Dedication. Love. High Expectations. Humility. This is how Rav Moshe Kahn’s talmidot describe their Rebbe. In fact, there is a long list, a myriad of heartfelt tributes from both colleagues and talmidot that consistently point to these qualities and themes of Rav Kahn and his shiurim. This past week marks Rabbi Kahn’s second yahrzeit, a time to reflect and appreciate his immense impact. 

“Rav Kahn has an extraordinary legacy because he was given a once in history opportunity,” Rabbanit Shalhevet Cahana (SCW ‘15, GPATS ‘17), a Judaic studies teacher at Jewish Leadership Academy, told The Commentator. In a world where advanced Talmud was barely taught to women, it was up to Rav Kahn how he would decide to teach it when he joined the SCW faculty in 1983. “He could have chosen to teach the lowest common denominator…basically zero Jewish high schools were teaching Gemara to women … it was just something that wasn’t done, and it would have been understandable had Rav Kahn chosen aggadatot, the easiest sugyot but he had no desire or patience for that.” Instead, Rav Kahn set the bar extremely high, instilling his talmidot with deep dedication and commitment to Torah learning. This choice that Rav Kahn made was foundational to the world of women’s talmud torah that can be seen today. 

Every hesped, article and conversation about Rav Kahn bears out this undeniable and wide reaching legacy in the broad Jewish community. 

Rav Kahn’s influence is apparent in how he passed his derech halimmud to generations of talmidot. Rabbanit Sally Mayer (SCW, BR ‘95), Rosh Midrasha of Midreshet Lindenbaum, shared, “I really feel that I am his talmidah in terms of his approach to gemara, his thoroughness, his focus on the words of the gemara and the conceptual analysis coming out of the words of the gemara, of the rishonim, through careful reading. My whole methodology of learning gemara comes from him.” 

Cahana expressed a similar sentiment. “Rav Kahn was rigorous. He was uncompromising. On every vocab quiz, on every test, you had to know every prefix, every suffix.” Later she shared, “If you want to know the impact on my life today, I’m a gemara teacher today and the methodologies that he had is how I teach.” Rav Kahn’s mesorah of close reading and caring about each letter of Torah exists today in his students and their students.

However, Rav Kahn’s impact reaches beyond his specific derech halimmud: “He was a paragon of impeccable middot,” Mayer said. Rav Kahn was not just an effective teacher because of his knowledge and skill. It was his quality of character traits that made him such a role model, one of the most pronounced ones being his humility. “I strive everyday to emulate his humility, his clear focus on what was important,” said Mayer. 

In other words from Cahana, “Rav Kahn never sought the spotlight … it was just not important to him.”

Though Rav Kahn didn’t put import into becoming known, he certainly was and is known. For Eliana Diamond (SCW ‘25), advanced gemara learning was a primary reason for choosing Yeshiva University over other colleges. “I wanted to continue the learning I had done in high school and Midrasha,” Diamond said. “This opportunity was available at Stern because of Rav Kahn’s dedication to women’s high-level learning.”

Diamond is not alone in this. For Tamar Beer Horowitz (SCW ‘21, GPATS ‘23) Rabbi Kahn “was the reason that I went to Stern.” Horowitz said, “My friends were in his shiur. They told me about it while I was in shana bet … it sounded like the opportunity of a lifetime and boy was it the opportunity of a lifetime.” 

His talmidot don’t take it for granted. Sitting in Rav Kahn’s shiur really was the opportunity of a lifetime. As Cahana reflected, “The hour would just whiz by. Honestly, some of the most beautiful hours I spent in Stern were in his shiur.”

There was real beauty in the level of dedication and seriousness. Rabbi Kahn earned the nickname “Killer Kahn” because of how rigorous and difficult his tests were. But this made it clear how much he cared and how much he believed his students could achieve. 

As Mayer said, “He wanted us to succeed, but he wanted us to succeed at something meaningful … He loved challenging us and seeing our successes and pushing us to go higher and to do more.” 

Rabbi Kahn’s high standard impacted his talmidot immensely. “The point of Rav Kahn was he set high expectations for his students,” Cahana said. “He expected the world of us but it gave us the permission to also expect the world of ourselves.”

Photo Caption: Rabbi Moshe Kahn at the GPATS graduation ceremony in May

Photo Credit: Yeshiva University