Rabbi Ruvein Fein at the Gottesman Library of Yeshiva University - Guest Post by Zalman Alpert

Guest Post by Zalman Alpert, Judaica Reference Librarian at the Gottesman Library of Yeshiva University from 1982–2014

As I wrote in an earlier contribution, Gottesman Library was used by many Rebbes and scholars of the Chasidic community, but few important rabbis of the Yeshiva community used the library.

An important exception I recall was Rav Ruvein Fein, the late Rosh Yeshiva of Torah VaDaas in Brooklyn. Although he did not personally come to the library, he did send one of his talmidim as his shliach.

R. Reuven Fein

Rav Fein was a grandson of Rav Yehuda Leib Fein Hyd, the last Rav of the city of Slonim, a city noted for it's famed rabbis.

My rebbe, Rabbi Shimon Romm of RIETS, told me that he picked up his oratorical skills from listening to the drashoth of Rav Fain, while R Romm was a student in the Slonimer Yeshiva of Rav Yagel. R. Romm considered Rabbi Fain as the best rabbinic speaker in the Litvishe sector of Poland (Eastern Poland).
In 1992 I was able to assist Rav Fein's talmid in locating some shtiklech Torah that his grandfather wrote for the rabbinic journal, Shaarei Torah in Warsaw among whose editors was Rav Mendel Kasher. Using Gottesman Librarys holding of pre-War Torah periodicals, this was a challenge but hardly impossible. I didn't think much of this until a while latter when I received a hand written thank you note from Rav Ruvain, expressing his gratitude and explaining what this meant for him.

The Thank you note from Rabbi Fein

Receiving a thank you from a leading gaon was meaningful for me as well, and is something I never forgot.
Rav Feins yorhzeit is the 25th day of Sivan
Zekher Zaddik Livrocha