Whatever the venue, Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Malach uses wit and humor as a medium but never loses sight of the message

Photos: Naftoli Goldgrab

While Motzaei Shabbos in Brooklyn usually features heavy foot traffic, on this particular weekend, with a hurricane battering New York, people were shuttered in their homes. I get out of my Uber, my kapoteh dripping wet and the edges of my shtreimel blowing wildly in the wind, and gratefully step into the warm, and more importantly, dry Malach home.

I’m excited to finally meet the man behind the most popular soundtrack in tens of thousands of frum homes. People listen to Rav Avraham Mordechai Malach’s shiurim in doctors’ waiting rooms and in hospitals, on the way to work and while waiting for the train. His speeches are broadcast on an endless loop at chinuch conventions. And it’s the no-fail conversation starter: “Nu, have you heard Malach’s latest vort?”

His vertlach are always engaging, his rich language laced with humor. He’s been gifted with stand-up comedian talents, but he uses them only as a medium for the messages he conveys to his audiences, about chinuch, avodas Hashem, our role in This World, emunah and bitachon, and the Jewish way to deal with challenges. He’s not afraid to touch on sensitive subjects. He’s a maggid shiur in Yeshivas Meor HaTorah, one of the most sought-after speakers in Jewish world, and an entertaining badchan at weddings. He’s the man who, almost literally, seems to dance at all weddings.

The setting in the Malach home is familiar; it’s a typical Motzaei Shabbos scene. The Havdalah candle is still on the table, as is the Shabbos tablecloth. The lights are all on. Children are underfoot and the rich scent of cholent lingers in the air. My host is wearing a pair of woolen tzitzis and his peyos sway from side to side, and we sit down for what turns out to be a fascinating conversation.

Reb Avraham Mordechai was born a bit more than 40 years ago. His father, Reb Pinchas Menachem Malach a”h, passed away a number of years ago, but hearing Reb Avraham Mordechai speak about his father, it’s clear he was a strong influence. Reb Pinchas Menachem was born in the small town of Ostrolenka to a family of Gerrer chassidim, and his father, Reb Chaim Wolf, was a chassid of the Sfas Emes. While Reb Pinchas Menachem himself was drawn to the influence of the Novardok mussar movement, he never forgot his Gerrer roots.

Anyone who hears Reb Avraham Mordechai’s shiurim has surely heard numerous stories of his father’s mesirus nefesh for Yiddishkeit in the forests of Siberia.