Echoes of Rabbi Wallerstein’s Words

What I learned from the most memorable of Rabbi Zechariah Wallerstein’s zt”l shiurim.

I am nowhere near able to capture or summarize who was Rabbi Wallerstein, what he did, nor even what we learn from him and the scope of what we have lost. I am  just compelled to share some notes from my files – transcriptions of his speeches over the close to 20 years that I have listened to his classes on Kol Haloshon, Torah Anytime, etc. 

Here are some highlights that stand out at this moment, even though so many come to mind, (including the Fireflies, the Mona Lisa, the Rowboat, the nose ring and Look Twice). He cared so deeply, took responsibility, was full of only Emes, and saw and brought forth the kedusha in each person whom he met or taught. May we be zoche to recognize and use every opportunity, with simchas hachayim, the way he exemplified how a Jew can live to his or her maximum, may the memory of Reb Zechariah Shimon haKohen ben Yitzchok haKohen be for a blessing, and may his family and loved ones be comforted.

The following are each segments of transcriptions from Rabbi Wallerstein’s speeches or shiurim:

DEFINED BY CARING
Rabbi Wallerstein always introduced this d’var Torah as “The most beautiful d’var Torah you will probably ever hear in your life.” (We saw him live by it):
“The Egyptian princess Batya found Moshe in the Nile River, and miraculously stretched out her hand to reach the basket. She opened the basket, and the Torah says she heard crying and she had pity on him, realizing the baby was a Jew. How did she know he was a Jew? (It was not because he had a bris, because at that time, after Yosef had become second to the king, he had made a rule that all males born in Egypt also be circumcised). And, whose voice did she hear crying? It was no baby cry, that’s for sure. The most beautiful d’var Torah you will probably ever hear in your life, is the answer to this question of who was crying. 

It wasn’t Moshe who was crying. Batya opened up the bundled baby, and said it was a boy baby, (a “yeled”). The mefarshim say she heard an older boy crying – a “na’ar.” Who was crying? Aharon, Moshe’s brother! Aharon had come (as well as Miriam, who had been sent by their mother) to see what would happen to his brother. When he saw a gentile princess was taking his brother, he knew she would take him to the palace and bring him up as a gentile, and he would be totally lost! So he said, “Oh my God, this is what’s going to happen? The princess of Egypt is taking my brother?” And he started crying. Batya turned around, and saw this kid, crying. 

“Why is he crying,” she thought to herself, “just because an Egyptian lady is taking this baby?” So she realized “this must mean that this baby is a Jew.” Because Jews cry for other Jews. The reason she understood that the baby in the basket was a Jew, was because she saw the Jewish brother crying for him! Jews cry for Jews. And Aharon had done that on his own initiative.

STRUGGLE MUSCLE
He described himself as able to help others because he had had his own pain and struggles. It’s what we do with it…:
Someone who struggles develops what I call “struggle muscle,” and once you have struggle muscle, that gives you the ability to carry others. So is it good to have pain, struggles, trauma, etc? Definitely not. But could something good come from that pain? Absolutely. 

I hate when people use that new psychological word, “journey.” “I’m on my journey.” I hate that word. Because whomever says it is usually saying it because he or she really means, “I’m not doing what I’m supposed to. I’m on my journey, get off my back, etc.” In my days, there was no such thing as people who were on a journey. There were some drug addicts, who were on a “trip.” But I never heard of “I’m on my journey.”

Rav Pincus z’tz’l said something that changed my life. He said that the only choice a person has, is what to do with the things that they have no choice: step in, or step out. Step up, or step down. What was he saying? He was saying, you have no choice in being born a girl or boy, Jewish or not, siblings or not, what your parents are like, your looks, your health, your country of origin, etc. So what choice do you have? Vanilla or chocolate? That is not why you are here! The only choice we do have is, with all that we were given, and all the things that happened to us that were not our choice, what do we do with them? Do you step up or stay down? Do you use them to help and understand others who have similar struggles? That’s what Hashem tells us – we were created as individuals, and that we have choice. And sometimes you need people to help you make the right choice.

LOVE, EMES AND RESPONSIBILITY
So many people describe how Rabbi Wallerstein treated him or her like his own relative:
Over thirty years ago, I decided that in chinuch, if someone asks me a question, I have to treat the question as if it were about my own kid. And sometimes people are very upset about my answers. Sometimes they don’t like my answer, but I feel very much like Hashem’s question to me in Shomayim, is going to be, “did you treat My daughters like they were yours?” and if the answer is yes, then you’re going to sit in Gan Eden in the highest place. If the answer is no, the trap door is going to open and you’re going to be barbequed. So I made up with my Rebbe Rav Gamliel, that any kid that I deal with, for that moment, that’s my son or daughter. And it is my feeling that anyone in chinuch should take that attitude because it is such a big responsibility. 

I spoke about it in a Torah U’Mesorah convention. I said, “If you are a Rebbe or a principal, and you’re not doing that, quit!” And there was one guy who followed me to the parking lot and said that he will quit, because he doesn’t feel it. And I said, “You are the one guy who should keep the job. Because if it bothered you that much, you’re the guy who needs to keep working in chinuch.” And when I speak in front of audiences of therapists, I ask them, “How many of you know your clients’ Hebrew names and mothers’ Hebrew names, so that you may say Tehillim for them before you go to bed at night?”

FINGERPRINTS AND INDIVIDUALITY
All Rabbi Wallerstein wanted from us was to have the clarity about our own uniqueness and use that kedusha to its fullest, the way he exemplified…
How are we a “shadow” of God? What does that mean? How are we like God?

We say Shema Yisroel Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad. Oneness, individuality, is God. There is also only one you and there was never one before you. Even though there is reincarnation of souls (gilgul), there is only one unique combination of your soul DNA that you are right now. So, you will never be again, and you never were before. You’re the only one, and you’ll never be here again. 

And when you come up to Heaven and you plea: “Please, one more chance, give me another chance,” there will be a flashing neon sign that creaks, “No more chances! Sorry! Trip’s over, “journey” is over!” So being only one, individuality, is Godliness, and it’s also a crazy responsibility because you don’t get another chance! So, it’s amazing that you are you, and that’s it, but, if you mess up, and you don’t do teshuva, then you (you, not necessarily your soul and parts of your soul) don’t get a chance to fix it.

When Hashem created the world and created the human beings, Adam and Chava, He said to the angels, after creating birds, fish, animals, “I am going to create them in my image, of only being one.” There are billions of people and everyone’s faces, fingerprints, and DNA is different. Through those swirls on your fingers the FBI can find out where you are, because no two people have the same fingerprints. Why is that? It’s that Hashem wants you to know that just like your physical body is unlike any other human being, so too, you are also spiritually on your own trip/journey/mission. That is Godliness, that is how a person is like God, and like a shadow of God, an image of God.

PLUGGING IN:
Let’s talk about plugging into Hashem. I tried to explain to my kids; What is Hashem? Hashem is like an electrical outlet.  

Hashem is around, you might not see Him, just like my toddler grandson doesn’t see the “fire” in the electrical outlet we keep warning him about.  When does one know that Hashem is around? Only when you plug in. If you don’t plug in, G-d doesn’t exist to you; you just see an outlet, a dead thing on the wall that everyone’s looking at saying, “Wow—the energy in there—if you put your finger in there…whoa,” and you’re looking around thinking, “Where, who… ? I don’t see anything!” If you plug in, there’s tremendous energy. It’s the same thing with Hashem. 

And the Torah is the switch to connect the body and soul. If you don’t have Torah, you still have the soul—you’re born with it.  And you have the body—but it gives no light. You only have light if you turn on the switch. Hashem gave us 613 mitzvos, 613 ways of flipping the switch to get that light, to give off light. 

GROW
I think the big lesson in psychology in the Torah in Parashas Shemos is this: Hashem said, “Turn around, and go face all your fears. Not: run further, deeper into the desert, run away from your past. No. Overcome your past, face your past. 

You want quiet, you want peace in the desert? That’s not the way for a person to grow. You cannot grow that way! “No,” said Hashem. “Turn around and face your fears. With your lisp, with your stutter, with everything that you have to go through, and you’re going to be the one to take out the Jews.”

 What a lesson in life that Hashem taught Moshe Rabbeinu! What a lesson in life Rabbi Wallerstein showed us with his own life!

TURN THE PAGE
We could hear in his voice how much he admired Yosef HaTzaddik and how much chizuk he got from learning about Yosef HaTzaddik’s life…
We in galus (exile) are going through such a hard time. Do not get stuck on the page, everybody. It is a very hard time. It seems like we are forgotten. It seemed like Yosef HaTzaddik was being forgotten at the end of parshas Vayeishev. ‘Turn the page’, there will be a Miketz. There will be an end to this galus. We will sit by the King, like Yosef HaTzaddik did; we will make a kiddush Hashem for the rest of the world. Don’t get stuck on the page of galus. Daven to Hashem, and do ahavas chinam. 

KEEP UP THE CLIMB
This is from a 2008 speech, and to me, this is signature Rabbi Wallerstein, may his lessons continue to give us strength.
Yaakov Avinu had a dream of a ladder, not an elevator, not an escalator, not steps. Not a ramp, and not a road. And I guarantee the angels do not really use a ladder. So why did Hashem put a ladder in this dream? Because a ladder is one step at a time. Your hands and your feet work together to climb. You can’t just go on your feet. It’s hard to climb. And it has to lean, it doesn’t just have its own power. A ladder has to lean. A person has to realize, that Hashem doesn’t expect you to fly, or to jump, He expects you to climb the ladder of life. It’s one rung at a time. And you have to lean your ladder on Him.

The ladder is the only thing that whether you’re going up or down the ladder, you are always looking up. If you go down on a road, down an escalator, down stairs, you look down. When you climb down a ladder, you descend still looking ahead. Hashem was telling Yaakov, that you’re going to go through a lot. No matter what you go through, no matter whether you’re going up or you’re going down, always look up to Me. Every person should know, you don’t have to be a winner all the time, you don’t have to be the best in the world, you have to climb that ladder one rung at a time, and you have to know Hashem is waiting, and you’ll get there.

Another thing about a ladder is you never look at the steps you took already; you look forward. So the lesson is, don’t look back. If you look back when you’re halfway through the climb and you start to think, “I’m done – look how many steps I did, 150 rungs. I’ll stop now.” On a ladder, you’re always looking at how far you have to go, not how far you went. For a person to grow, you have to always look up the ladder. You can’t be satisfied with how far you went. Because if you’re satisfied with how far you went, you’re not going to grow anymore.  In Judaism, we know there’s no stopping, you either fall or you gain. So, always be on a ladder, looking for the next rung. That’s how a person grows, that’s why Hashem showed Yaakov Avinu the ladder.

Hashem’s saying, Yaakov Avinu, teach your children: they’re going to go up, and they’re going to go down. They’re gonna keep chugging. It’s not about getting to the top. It doesn’t say anywhere in the dream: “Yaakov Avinu, I’ll see you on the top of the ladder.” A Jew’s life is: going up and down. But as long as you know you’re leaning on Hashem, there’s nothing to worry about. You don’t have to WIN in life! You have to try. 

* For those who would like to consider putting their feelings into words for either sharing with Rabbi Wallerstein’s family, or for some kind of publication, I have created the following google form.* The Wallerstein family has created the following form for memories as well.