By Rabbi Moshe Dov Heber
There wasn’t a dry eye in the room at the levaya of Rabbi Avi Oberlander z”l. His impact on hundreds was evident on the faces of so many assembled in the crowd. As the levaya finished and the shiva began, story after story about his influence as a rebbe started coming out. Men and boys of all stripes came and shared their connection to their beloved rebbe and the impression he had on them that they carry to this very day.
I was in awe, as I knew he was special but didn’t realize his full greatness even though I had such a close connection to him. I wasn’t a talmid but rather his children were my talmidim. I have taught his three boys in Yeshiva K’tana of Waterbury for several years and maintain a close connection to these wonderful boys. Over the years and especially over the last year and a half during his illness, I had a front row seat into how a gadol deals with a nisayon. He had a rock solid emunah that I had never witnessed before. The Oberlander’s never failed to amaze me in how a Yid never breaks.
Over the days of shiva I began thinking about my connection to R’ Avi and realized a remarkable thing. When his son Yosef was in my class during my first year of teaching, I had met R’ Avi and thus began our relationship. I was still in my twenties at that time and he was a master mechanech, but the respect he treated me with was unmatched. He or his dedicated eishes chayil would often call me for advice or my opinion about their children. Never, not even once, did I hear from him “that based on my experience…”. Although he was guiding dozens of people during that time period, it didn’t matter. He believed in me as the rebbe of his child and honestly wanted to hear what I perceived as the right path going forward. R’ Avi always went out of his way to thank me for what I was doing and never missed an opportunity to give a compliment.
I may not have been a “formal talmid”, but just as he built hundreds of boys, believing in them so that they believed in themselves, I too feel that he believed in me. In essence I could join the list of hundreds if not thousands of people who are lucky to call him their rebbe.
Yehi Zichro Baruch
Rabbi Moshe Dov Heber can be reached via email mdheber@ykwaterbury.org.