A Tribute to My Rebbe
When I first met Rabbi Wieder at the beginning of my second year of YU and expressed interest in joining his shiur, he called me into his office for a quick meeting. After talking about myself for a few minutes, I asked Rabbi Wieder what the goal of his shiur is. He responded, “Of course I would love for my talmidim to become talmidei chachamim. But even if a student left YU after spending time in my shiur without retaining any of the content, if he grew in his yiras shamayim because of me, I consider that a success. At the end of the day, what’s most important to me is my students’ neshamos.” It was at that moment I knew I had found my rebbe.
After over 25 years as a rosh yeshiva at YU, Rabbi Jeremy Wieder is making aliyah. And while he has made a tremendous impact on his hundreds of students throughout the years, myself included, I get the sense that the majority of YU students are relatively unaware of who Rabbi Wieder really is. From the comments I’ve heard around the beis medrash, students primarily know Rabbi Wieder for one of three things: his knowledge of academic Talmud and Aramaic, his left-leaning positions (on some issues, relative to most of the other roshei yeshiva) and his sichos mussar [moral lectures]. While all these are components of Rabbi Wieder, they by no means encapsulate the entirety of who he is, and so I’d like to take a few words to tell you about my rebbe.
It goes without saying that Rabbi Wieder is a tremendous talmid chacham, and I have grown tremendously in my talmud Torah by learning from him over the past two years. But the biggest impression he has made on me is his middos, specifically in three main categories: His humility, his sensitivity and his yiras shamayim.
I am lucky enough to witness this humility every day in shiur. Shiur each day is not 90 minutes of Rabbi Wieder lecturing to us. It is an hour and a half of heightened discourse, of back-and-forth, of Rebbe and his students presenting ideas, asking questions, challenging each other and proving points. Shiur is about us, the students, being part of the mesorah of talmud Torah. He is open when he feels he has clarity in a sugya, but points out that it did not come easily to him and he has toiled over it for several days. He is also honest when he feels that he doesn’t understand what Tosafos is saying and asks for our thoughts. While Rebbe is not afraid to point out when he thinks a student’s idea is ridiculous, he also happily acknowledges when he thinks a student’s idea makes more sense than his own. He treats each of us with equal respect and wants to be able to say “nitzchuni talmidai” — “my students have bested me” (Cf. Bava Metzia 59b).
Rabbi Wieder is in the beis medrash every day from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., the time during which we are preparing for shiur. He tells us quite often that while he could accomplish much more in his personal learning if he locked himself in his office for the mornings, he makes sure to learn in the beis medrash so he can be available for his talmidim to bother him. And bother him we do. Questions on the sugya, halachic shailos [questions], random batala [time-wasting], you name it. And we feel comfortable talking to him and joking with him because he doesn’t present himself as larger than life. Because it’s not about his personal kavod [honor]. It’s about us.
Rebbe often gets calls to answer complicated shailos and his sensitivity shines through in this capacity as well. Apparent is the amount of focus and attention he gives to the speakers. His facial expression, a hint of concern masked by objectivity and calm, shows his empathy while also not letting emotions cloud the objective truth of halacha. And I know this from my personal experience asking Rebbe shailos as well. Whether my questions are heavy or trivial, whether I pop by his makom during seder or call him at 9 p.m., Rebbe always gives me the same respect and care. He has a way of presenting halacha in a way that makes one feel as if both he personally and the halachic system hear and understand the situation.
Finally, and most importantly, is Rebbe’s yiras shamayim. In a recent sichas mussar entitled “Intellectual Integrity and Yir’at Shamayim” which I highly recommend you listen to on YUTorah, he told students that “we are supposed to live our lives playing for an audience of one, HaKadosh Baruch Hu.” I don’t think any one sentence sums up Rebbe better.
Rebbe has many opinions on many different topics, and he’s not afraid to share them with us (every Thursday, our small shiur comes together for shiur lunch in which we get to schmooze with Rebbe about his thoughts on anything from controversial halachic topics to current events to healthy eating and lifestyle). But as Rebbe once pointed out regarding his political beliefs, he isn’t right-wing or left-wing. He simply follows the Torah’s hashkafa. His intellectually honest assessment of Tanach and Shas dictates his opinions on morality, economics, politics, life decisions and much more. Very often, these opinions are at odds with many of his colleagues, but he simply speaks what he believes to be right, what he believes to be ratzon Hashem.
Rebbe will talk quite frequently and passionately about a Jew’s responsibility to the less fortunate and oppressed. I have lost count of the number of times he quoted the Gemara in Yevamos (79a) that a Jew is identified by three qualities: mercy, bashfulness and the performance of acts of kindness. Otherwise, there are doubts if he is really Jewish. I once asked him if I should be giving money to every homeless person I pass on the street, to which he responded, “I don’t know what they are going to do with the money, but personally, walking past them and ignoring them is damaging to my neshama.”
A short article does not do justice to the greatness of Rabbi Wieder and the amount of respect and appreciation I have for him. The two short years I have known him are not a big enough lens into all that he has done and continues to do. But for those of you who haven’t had any opportunity to appreciate Rabbi Wieder, apart from a sichas mussar or that Targum shiur you (accidentally) stumbled into when he was in YU for Shabbos, I hope this was able to give you a small taste.
We wish Rabbi Wieder and his wife Chaviva Levin much hatzlacha as they begin their lives in Eretz Yisrael. Rebbe, we will miss you.
Photo Caption: Rabbi Jeremy Wieder speaking at his farewell ceremony in the Glueck beit midrash, May 6
Photo Credit: Yeshiva University
