A Master Mechanech: Rabbi Ovadiah Dubin zt”l

A Master Mechanech

Rabbi Ovadiah Dubin zt”l

BY ELI DUBIN AND HINDY LANGER

Early Years

In September of 1929, as the United States was slipping into the Great Depression, R’ Yisroel Eliyahu Dubin, an upholsterer by trade, made a decision to leave Philadelphia and move to New York in order to enroll his son in yeshiva. This, at a time when the “Upholsterer’s Journal” had taken out a full-page ad that month warning upholsterers not to come to New York to look for work, as there were no jobs available. Although by no means wealthy, R’ Yisroel Eliyahu was able to support his family in Philadelphia. But R’ Yisroel Eliyahu was undeterred. As he wrote in his autobiography: “I decided that if I wanted to save my children from being assimilated amongst the Goyim and learning their ways, then I must, immediately, leave Philadelphia. My oldest son would be six years old on Shemini Atzeres. lf not now, when?”

R’ Yisroel Eliyahu understood that the only way to ensure that his children would remain frum was to move to New York where there were proper yeshivas for his children. He rented an apartment just down the block from Yeshiva Chaim Berlin and enrolled his young son in the yeshiva. R’ Yisroel Eliyahu always said that the day that he enrolled his son in Yeshiva Chaim Berlin was the happiest day of his life.

The son who would be turning six years old on Shemini Atzeres was Rabbi Ovadiah Dubin zt”l, who was niftar last Wednesday, on the 24th day of Shevat. Rabbi Dubin’s life was a testament to his father’s vision and foresight. He lived his entire life within the bounds of a yeshiva; as a student at Yeshiva Chaim Berlin and Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, as a rebbe in Yeshiva Chaim Berlin, Salanter Yeshiva, HILI, and other day schools and Talmud Torahs, and in his later years as a mentor to talmidim in Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshuv. In R’ Yisroel Eliyahu’s later years, when he was a patient at the Betzalel nursing home, Rabbi Dubin would visit him every single day and study the daf hayomi together with him.

A Master Mechanech from a Young Age

Rabbi Dubin learned in Yeshiva Chaim Berlin, where he had a close relationship with both Rav Hutner and Rav Yaakov Moshe Shurkin, a talmid of the Chofetz Chaim. He not only learned Torah from Rav Shurkin, he absorbed his pedagogical methods and approach to chinuch. Rav Shurkin once remarked to a talmid that Rabbi Dubin was a “velt’s ganiv!” When the person expressed surprise that Rav Shurkin would speak that way about a talmid of his, he explained, “He literally took everything from me! Exactly how I explain a sugya and how I talk to talmidim…”

Rav Hutner recognized Rabbi Dubin’s potential as an educator from a young age. When Rabbi Dubin was a bachur – at approximately twenty-one – Rav Hutner called him into his office and informed him that one of the rabbeim in the Chaim Berlin mesivta (Rav Meir Pam, father of Rav Avrohom Pam) had taken ill and would be out for the foreseeable future. He told Rabbi Dubin that he wanted him to take over the class. Rabbi Dubin protested that he had no experience and could hardly see how he could be expected to control a classroom of high school boys who were only several years younger than he was. But Rav Hutner insisted, and Rabbi Dubin was left with no choice. Rabbi Dubin taught the class for several months and had an astounding degree of success.

After Rabbi Dubin’s marriage to Susi (Sarah Ettel) Beller, he sought a job as a rebbe. Rav Hutner arranged a job for him at the Salanter Yeshiva in the Bronx, where Rabbi Dubin was very successful.

Several years later, Rav Hutner told him that he was sending a young bachur who he felt had potential in chinuch to take a job at Salanter yeshiva in middle of the year, and he wanted Rabbi Dubin to help him. The bachur in question was a recent immigrant from Eastern Europe. Rabbi Dubin at the time was teaching the sixth grade, where he had already successfully implemented his system of discipline, and the bachur had been assigned to teach the third grade. Rabbi Dubin felt that if the bachur would begin his career teaching third grade boys, he would not last long in chinuch. He felt that if the bachur would teach sixth grade, after the boys had already started learning Gemara, then he would be better able to become a successful mechanech. Rabbi Dubin therefore offered to switch classes with him. That bachur was Rav Chaim Segal, who was later renowned as a master mechanech and the menahel of Yeshiva Chaim Berlin mesivta.

Rav Chaim always credited Rabbi Dubin with getting him started as a mechanech and was happy to be able to repay the favor by being the shadchan for Rabbi Dubin’s oldest son.

From Salanter Yeshiva, Rabbi Dubin moved on to HILI, a day school in Far Rockaway, and then to various day schools and Talmud Torahs.

After many years of teaching at yeshivos and day schools, he was offered a position as a public-school teacher, where he made an impression on hundreds, if not thousands, of Jewish students. He kept a set of tefillin and a small library of seforim in the back of his social studies classroom. He was on a committee that wrote the Hebrew regents and took special pleasure including his children and grandchildren’s names on the Regents exams that they would be taking.

He was an expert baal korei and master of Hebrew language and dikduk and took

pride in the fact that his sons and many of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren were expert baalei kriah as well. It didn’t hurt that he bought a Megillas Esther for any grandchild who learned how to lein the megillah (and actually leined it)! One of his grandchildren, Dr. Reuven Minkowitz, once leined at an Orthopedic Convention in LA, in the distinctly expressive and careful way that he had been taught by his grandfather. Subsequently, another doctor attending the convention came over to him and asked him where he had learned to lein. The physician told him that he reminded him of his teacher Mr. Dubin. Another doctor standing by overheard and remarked that he had also had a teacher – a Rabbi Dubin – who had leined in the same distinctive manner. Not only did his students remember him years later, he remembered every one of his thousands of students, which class they were in and whether or not they were a good student – a direct result of the love and closeness he felt for every one of them. Retirement – With his father, R’ Yisroel Eliyahu Dubin, and his mechutan, Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky, zt”l A Return to Yeshiva After the tragic death of his wife in a car accident in 2001, Rabbi Dubin’s world was shattered. He had shared an exceptionally close relationship with his wife and felt her loss keenly. He found solace by returning to yeshiva full-time. He began to spend his entire day at Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshuv in Far Rockaway, exhibiting tremendous hasmada in his learning. The rosh yeshiva Rav Naftoli Jaeger described at the levayah at how Rabbi Dubin served as a model for the bochurim. He would arrive at

He was constantly quoting pesukim from every the yeshiva every day at 8:00 a.m. after havsefer in Tanach and knew almost all of Tanach by ing davened and attended Rabbi Kalisch’s daf yomi shiur, where heart, a quality he learned from his father. he was referred to as “Rabbeinu Ovadiah,” in deference to his encyclopedic knowledge. Whenever the maggid shiur was absent, Rabbi Dubin would deliver a shiur without any advance notice or preparation, and the members of the shiur knew that they could always rely on Rabbi Dubin to provide the precise location and wording of any pasuk in Tanach that came up during the shiur. He would learn at the yeshiva until 6:00 p.m., taking only a brief break to eat and to do some exercise for his health. Bochurim would approach him and re-

quest to learn with him, and he would always immediately answer, “Sure!” and then he would ask them what they wanted to learn. He would learn anything that they wanted, Gemara, Chumash, Nach, halacha, or dikduk. He was totally committed to those sedorim. When children or grandchildren would call and ask him if they could come visit, he would only allow them to come during times when he did not have a seder with a talmid at the yeshiva.

Rabbi Jaeger said that his love for each and every bochur in the yeshiva overflowed, and they felt it. They would vie for the privilege of driving him to and from yeshiva and even gave him brochos under the chuppah at their weddings.

Fluent in Shas and Tanach

Rabbi Dubin was fluent in Shas and Tanach. One of his sons recalled spending Yom Kippur in a rehab facility with him when he was in his nineties. During the afternoon, his son took out a Gemara and began to learn. Rabbi Dubin asked him what mesechta he was learning and which daf and then began to learn with his son from memory.

His knowledge of Tanach was exceptional. He was constantly quoting pesukim from every sefer in Tanach and knew almost all of Tanach by heart, a quality he learned from his father. One of his sons said at the levayah that he was “as fluent in Iyov as most people are in Ashrei.”

One of his grandsons hosted him for Pesach when he was in his mid-nineties and wheelchair-bound. The grandson arranged a minyan for him in his house and honored him with maftir and he naturally leined the haftorah. Because he had limited use of his fingers in his later years, someone had to turn the pages for him. About half of the way through the haftorah, the person turning the pages mistakenly turned two pages instead of one. Rabbi Dubin finished off the next 10-15 pesukim as if nothing had happened. The same thing happened many times in the weekly Nach shiur that he gave until about three months before his petirah.

Rabbi Dubin had an exceptionally wide range of knowledge of many other areas of Torah, especially those that others do not pay much attention to. He was exceptionally fluent in Hebrew language and dikduk, even giving shiurim in dikduk in Sh’or Yoshuv. He was also incredibly well-read in Jewish history. His son-in-law Rabbi Yitzchok Shurin described how Rabbi Dubin would give shiurim on the mesorah gedolah and mesorah ketanah in Tanach, a subject that many people don’t even know exists.

The Quintessential Mechanech

Rabbi Dubin was not just an educator in his various teaching positions, his very essence was that of a mechanech. He used every opportunity to teach, often quoting from Tanach and Gemara to make a point.

His sons recalled that when they were less than eight years old and a younger sister was missing on Shabbos, he called over his sons and said to them, “Watch, I am going to call the police now because there is a possibility of pikuach nefesh.” After he was informed by the police that his daughter was safe at the police station, he told his sons that he was going to walk to the police station but only because he was told that she was happy. If she would have been crying or upset, he would have driven to the police station as the halacha requires. Rabbi Dubin turned the incident into a teaching moment despite his natural anxiety about his missing child.

One grandson recalled staying with him when he was an onein upon the death of his brother and how Rabbi Dubin called him over to show him how he was eating without a bracha because he was an onein.

A great-grandchild related that as a young boy, he couldn’t pronounce the “ches” sound in his name. Rabbi Dubin told him that the Gemara says that Rav Chiya also couldn’t pronounce the “ches” sound. He then proceeded to teach that child to correctly pronounce his own name.

In every small encounter, he would teach – every moment was a teachable encounter, there was always another lesson to be taught – and those lessons were taught with chochmah.

One of his sons described how Rabbi Dubin had a tutoring session with a boy from the neighborhood on Shabbos afternoon. Rabbi Dubin would always invite his son to join them in their learning. Years later, Rabbi Dubin told him that he had arranged the tutoring session for the sole purpose of being able to invite his son to learn with them because Rabbi Dubin had felt that his son would be more receptive to learning with him in this manner.

He knew how to teach in a gentle manner without causing embarrassment. One of his grandsons recalled that when he was newly married and with Rabbi Dubin on Shemini Atzeres, he made kiddush in the sukkah and mistakenly made the bracha of leisheiv basukkah. Rabbi Dubin, who was then in his nineties, did not tell him that he should not have made the bracha so as not to embarrass him in front of his new wife. He merely quoted the words of the Gemara: “Yisuvei Yasvinan, bruchi lo mivarchinan,” knowing that his grandson would understand the words of the Gemara but that his wife would not.

The lessons he taught penetrated because of the love and closeness that he had with his family. He knew each of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren and was familiar with all of the details of their lives. He knew which ones had strep throat and which one had received an award in yeshiva – even when he was well into his nineties. He never forgot the birthday of a child, grandchild, or great-grandchild.

During their 54 years of marriage, Rabbi Dubin and his wife were role models for shalom bayis, respecting each other, looking up to each other, and fostering a positive, happy atmosphere at home. Sundays would find extended family (children and grandchildren) regularly making the trip to Far Rockaway from Brooklyn and beyond – it was a joy to be in that house.

With R’ Yehoshua Fishman

A Final Lesson in Kibbud Av

Rabbi Dubin’s grandchildren were zocheh to an unforgettable, awe-inspiring lesson in kibbud av, to a level unknown and unseen by most. Rabbi Dubin’s children were held up as a lesson by a prominent rosh yeshiva, who used them to demonstrate that there are Yidden today who know what kibbud av is. His children changed their entire lives around to take care of their father with great mesirus nefesh during his final years.

Rabbi Dubin is survived by his sons, R’ Avrohom and R’ Gershon, and by his daughters, Goldie Minkowitz, Aliza Rabinowitz, Esther Shurin and Debbie Schuss, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren following in his ways.

Yehi zichro baruch.