Early Inspiration

It’s a long way from Bnei Brak to Brooklyn, where it all began.

David Hirsch and his wife Malvina (Minda) left Hungary before the war and arrived on New York’s safer shores. They settled in Boro Park, where David, known to all as a fine and upstanding man, managed a catering business, in addition to operating a hotel in Rockaway Beach.

Following the war, when the Mirrer Yeshiva arrived in America after their sojourn in Shanghai, they were based for a short time in Rockaway Beach. When Succos came along, David Hirsch arranged for them to eat in the succah of a local shul, and he himself provided food for the seudos.

The Hirsches sent their son to Toras Emes elementary school in Boro Park, whose principal, Rabbi Elias Schwartz, left an indelible imprint on the young Moshe Hillel. (Rabbi Schwartz was instrumental in founding the Olomeinu magazine, a Torah journal for children which was in circulation for many decades.) Many decades later, in 2015, Rav Moshe Hillel, by then the renowned Slabodka rosh yeshivah, was invited to speak to the young talmidim of Toras Emes. Rav Moshe Hillel then visited his former principal, who was nearly 100 years old, and thanked him for the inspiration he gleaned from him 70 years prior, when he taught them that the most important thing in life is to aspire to become a talmid chacham.

In the ’40s and ’50s, the youngsters who were part of the Zeirei Agudah minyan would congregate every Shabbos in the main Agudah building on 14th Avenue and 45th street. The minyan groomed future roshei yeshivah and prominent lay leaders, among them  Rav Moshe Hillel and his good friend and future Passaic rosh yeshivah Rav Meir Stern, who was the president of the minyan. On occasion Rav Aharon Kotler would daven with these boys when he was in Boro Park for Shabbos.

As the minyan grew and the boys grew older and eventually married, they took Rav Yisroel Perkowski, one of the roshei yeshivah of Bais Hatalmud, as their rav. Even after Rav Moshe Hillel moved on to Lakewood, he would send letters back to his chaveirim from Zeirei with words of Torah and chizuk that he had heard from his rosh yeshivah, Rav Aharon.

Upon reaching high school age, Rav Moshe Hillel began to attend the Rabbi Jacob Joseph yeshivah, then located on the East Side of Manhattan, surrounded by peers such as Rav Meir Stern, Rav Meir Hershkowitz (future rosh yeshivah of Stamford, CT), Marvin Schick, and notable others. While in RJJ, Rav Moshe Hillel served as the editor of the school newspaper as well as class president.

The faculty at RJJ was comprised of outstanding talmidei chachamim, many of whom had arrived from Europe after the war. It was there that Rav Moshe Hillel grew close to Rav Shmuel Dovid Warshavchik, Rav Mendel Kravitz, Rav Zeidel Epstein, Rav Shaya Shimanowitz, and other legendary rebbeim who taught there.

A defining moment came in the mid- 1950s when Rav Aharon Kotler came to say a shiur in RJJ. It was then that Rav Moshe Hillel got his first real exposure to the founding father of the American Torah world. A few years later, together with a group of friends from RJJ, Rav Moshe Hillel made the move to go learn in Beth Medrash Govoha of Lakewood, where he became a talmid muvhak of Rav Aharon’s.

Warmed by His Fire

A few years ago, Rav Moshe Hillel spoke longingly of his rebbi, saying, “Part of the tzibbur doesn’t know who Rav Aharon was. They think he was a hard man. It’s not true. Although he would shout when he learned, it was rischa d’Oraisa, but by nature, he wasn’t a strict person, at all. He was very easygoing. Very forgiving and flexible. One could go over and speak to him. He was a man without the ‘I,’ all for his students, in learning and on any subject,” Rav Moshe Hillel said — and it’s hard not to see similar characteristics in Rav Aharon’s prized talmid.

Rav Moshe Hillel spent 13 years in Lakewood, and his friends from that period mention his name with the greatest awe and respect. His primary chavrusa was his friend Rav Ephraim Reuven Zurayvin ztz”l, rosh yeshivah of Knesses Bais Aharon. He also learned with Rav Hillel Zaks ztz”l, rosh yeshivah of Chevron and Knesses Hagedolah.

Although his friends recall that he was one of the outstanding talmidim of Rav Aharon, Rav Moshe Hillel himself spoke modestly of the connection. “It was mostly a relationship in learning,” Rav Moshe Hillel asserts. At one of the Slabodka summer camp retreats, when the talmidim asked the Rosh Yeshivah to share memories of Rav Aharon, Rav Moshe Hillel looked surprised. “I have no stories from Rav Aharon,” he said. “Nothing else interested me, so I saw only Torah.”

Rav Aharon had a deep appreciation for Rav Moshe Hillel, and included him in the group of two or three talmidim with whom he reviewed the shiur before delivering it to the yeshivah. When the shiur was over, Rav Moshe Hillel served as the chozer, repeating the shiur to the talmidim who had struggled to understand it the first time.

Rav Aharon also instructed those who worked on documenting his shiurim to work hand in hand with his talmid Rav Moshe Hillel, who edited and reviewed the written shiurim. He was also the one who approved the printing of Shu”t Mishnas Rav Aharon.

Rav Moshe Hillel’s 13 years in Lakewood were a continuum of learning. Recalling the intensity of the learning in those days, he says, “We used to learn a blatt every seder.” He learned with tremendous hasmadah, and friends from those days describe how he would sometimes stop in the street and stay fixed in place, gazing at a random spot.

He could work on the same sugya for three weeks straight, day and night, almost without letup. It was impossible to speak with him about anything during that time — not just about mundane matters, but also about a different sugya.

Current Slabodka talmidim relate that something of that “iluyishkeit” remains to this day. One of the talmidim remembers the Rosh Yeshivah standing near the door, a key in his hand, unmoving for a few long moments.

“Sometimes,” he says, “when you pass by him, you feel like you simply ‘woke him up’ from a deep iyun in the sugya. But he’s so sharp that in a fraction of a second he can continue as if nothing happened.”

Last Pesach, the rosh yeshivah of Tifrach, Rav Aviezer Piltz, who learned in Lakewood together with Rav Moshe Hillel, paid him a visit in Bnei Brak. With the talmidim eagerly listening in, he shared memories of their time in Lakewood together.

“I remember that Rav Aharon said a shiur and Rav Moshe Hillel refuted it,” said Rav Piltz. “He asked a question. Rav Aharon argued, and ultimately declared, ‘Ehr iz gerecht!’ (He is right!)”

Moving East 

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one of Rav Aharon Kotler’s visits to Eretz Yisrael he visited the rosh yeshivah of Slabodka, Rav Mordechai Shulman ztz”l, who he had known for years.

Rav Mordechai Shulman had a daughter, Avigail, who was of shidduch age. Rav Aharon suggested Avigail as a shidduch for his talmid, Rav Moshe Hillel, predicting, “He is going to be a big rosh yeshivah.”

The suggestion seemed reasonable to both sides, but for various reasons, the shidduch was delayed for a long time.  And then, on 2 Kislev 5723, Rav Aharon departed this world.

When his will was opened, it was discovered that the Rosh Yeshivah had instructed that only five talmidim should carry his mitah at the levayah. One of them was Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, ybl”c. The mitah set out on its long final journey, beginning in America and ending in Israel.

During that sad visit, the long-ago suggested shidduch came to fruition. In fact, the one who had first suggested the shidduch – Rav Aharon Kotler – was instrumental in bringing it to completion.

The wedding took place in America and the mesader kiddushin was Rav Moshe Feinstein ztz”l. The young chassan continued learning in Lakewood. Five years after the wedding, Rav Moshe Hillel and his wife moved to Eretz Yisrael, where he began to learn in Slabodka, his father-in-law’s yeshivah.

The Slabodka yeshivah in Bnei Brak has its roots in — timely enough — a draft threat. Slabodka was first established in Kovno by the Alter of Slabodka, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel zy”a.

Then, in 1924, the local authorities issued draft orders that affected the bochurim of Slabodka. When Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein, the rosh yeshivah, heard about this, he devised a daring plan: He would transplant the entire yeshivah to Eretz Yisrael. The plan was partially implemented — with half the talmidim already in Eretz Yisrael — when the decree was rescinded.

The talmidim in Eretz Yisrael settled in Chevron, forming the nucleus of the yeshivah there. After the Holocaust, the Alter’s son-in-law Rav Eizik Sher ztz”l and Rav Mordechai Shulman, Rav Moshe Hillel’s father-in law, reestablished the European branch of Slabodka in Bnei Brak, where the proximity to the Chazon Ish morphed the yeshivah into something different than the original Slabodka.

In contrast to the original yeshivah, where the bochurim dressed well, even spiffily, in line with the Alter’s philosophy of gadlus ha’adam, you’ll find the the Chazon Ish’s influence very much evident in today’s Slabodka. A significant number of bochurim wear the larger shiur of tzitzis, and there are those who grow a beard and peyos, unusual in litvishe yeshivos.

By the age of 35, Rav Moshe Hillel was delivering shiurim at the yeshivah, but the American stamp is evident when he speaks. When not conversing in Yiddish or English, he speaks Lashon Hakodesh, not modern Ivrit. In the early years, he continued to drive his own car, something very atypical in Israeli yeshivish circles.

When he ultimately stopped driving, it was because the upkeep and repairs robbed him of precious time, and secondly, because he was once so engrossed in his learning that he became distracted while driving. Worried that this might be dangerous, he gave up the keys and never drove again.

Joint Leadership

Despite his attempts to remain humble and unassuming, after his father-in-law’s passing in 1982, he was appointed to serve as one of the roshei yeshivah, alongside his brother-in-law Rav Amram Zaks ztz”l and Rav Boruch Rosenberg ztz”l.

The other figure who began to serve in this role with him was Rav Dov Landau shlita. There is a familial relationship between Rav Dov and Rav Moshe Hillel, as Rebbetzin Adina Landau is a cousin of Rebbetzin Hirsch, whose father, Reb Yosef Hy”d, is a son of Rav Eizik Sher. The two future rebbetzins grew up in the same home — Rebbetzin Landau was adopted by her uncle after her parents perished during the Holocaust.

The Slabodka yeshivah has been a model of peace and tranquility over the decades, and the partnership between Rav Dov and Rav Moshe Hillel serves as a fascinating model of joint leadership.

After the passing of Rav Gershon Edelstein in 2023, the mantle of leadership transferred from Ponovezh to Slabodka, to be borne by both roshei yeshivah, Rav Dov and Rav Moshe Hillel.

It’s hard to define the division of responsibilities, because they are hardly divided. After more than fifty years together, it’s not really possible to separate them. The two roshei yeshivah conduct a daily meeting after Shacharis, and if someone tries to drive a wedge between the two leaders, a short conversation is usually enough to clarify matters.

Time and again, askanim who come to Rav Dov Landau’s home are referred to Rav Moshe Hillel. Many times, Rav Dov insists that Rav Moshe Hillel be the one to decide on a course of action, and the converse is also true.

Whenever an issue requires galvanizing support and internal cooperation between different sectors of the chareidi community, Rav Dov prefers to rely on Rav Moshe Hillel. On the other hand, on the rare occasion where Rav Dov expresses a firm position different than his, Rav Moshe Hillel submits himself to it completely.

Rav Dov was once asked about the unity that characterizes the roshei yeshivah of Slabodka, and he replied simply: “Ha’Elokim asah es ha’adam yashar. The Roshei Yeshivah here are simply people who are honest and natural….”

Yeshivah Above All

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hile in recent years the burden of leadership has landed on Rav Moshe Hillel’s shoulders, his daily schedule hasn’t changed. He spends most of his time at home or in his room in the yeshivah, learning with chavrusas.  Conversations with rabbanim, askanim, MKs, ministers, philanthropists in the Torah world, and others who seek his counsel are concentrated into just one hour — the official afternoon receiving hour between two and three. The rest of his time is dedicated to Torah, to learning, chavrusas, shiurim, and his talmidim.

The joint leadership of the two roshei yeshivah applies to the cycle of shiurim as well. Besides the daily shiur — renowned for generating fiery discussion among the talmidim — Rav Moshe Hillel gives a shiur klali once in two weeks, alternating with Rav Dov Landau. For years, Rav Moshe Hillel would deliver a chaburah on Kodshim in his home a few afternoons a week for the older bochurim (the kibbutz).

Rav Moshe Hillel also bears the financial burden for the yeshivah, and the responsibility to accept bochurim. But with all that workload, he’s available to speak to talmidim almost every hour of the day and spends many hours with bochurim and alumni who wish to speak things out with him.

“He’s like a father,” one alumnus tries to explain. “Even though he’s so lofty, he understands very well what’s going on in the world. He lives the reality, and hundreds of the yeshivah students, and many more beyond, seek his counsel on matters of chinuch and other matters,” another adds.

Rav Moshe Hillel takes a personal interest in the bochurim, calling, encouraging, and urging them to learn more. He works to advance any initiative that will strengthen Torah learning, whether an individual’s or the klal’s. Sometimes, he can be seen speaking in learning on the phone with talmidim from chutz l’Aretz.

One alumnus remembers a period when he slacked off in his learning. The mashgiach updated his parents, who naturally, were very distraught. After a while, he grew stronger and began to shteig again.

One day, his mother got a phone call. “Hello, this is Moshe Hirsch,” the caller said. The Rosh Yeshivah was calling to update the bochur’s parents that he was learning well and davening properly.

The parents began to breathe easier again.

Sometime around twenty years ago, the at-risk youth issue began to leave its mark in chareidi circles. After years of being suppressed, it became a widespread trend that could no longer be ignored. One of the first to take responsibility and begin to address the issue was Rav Moshe Hillel. He established organizations, and later, special schools and frameworks for at-risk youth. While at first there was pushback, ultimately Rav Moshe Hillel received the support of the gedolim of that generation — chief among them Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and Rav Aharon Yehudah Leib Steinman, zecher tzaddikim livrachah.

The gedolei hador began to send menahalim of yeshivos, chadarim, and high schools to him for advice. Likewise, senior roshei yeshivah also began streaming to his home for hours-long meetings.

“The obligation of every father is to be beloved by his son, to be his ‘friend.’ ” says Rav Moshe Hillel. “Friendship is not only built on learning and ruchniyus, but also on deep, personal emotion. When a child comes home from a trip, you don’t need to ask him if he davened and learned on the way. You need to ask him how was it? How did he feel? What did he do there? This friendship is so important in our day,” he exhorts, “to develop the simple, human love between father and son.”

With Wisdom and Heart

A hallmark of Rav Moshe Hillel’s leadership has been the deft consensus building that has led to broad coalitions that unite the oft-fractious chareidi world. The first demonstration of that ability was when former Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel tried to cancel the existing kosher cell phone market. In just a few days, Rav Moshe Hillel organized a joint meeting with representatives of Degel Hatorah, Agudas Yisrael, the Shas party, and even the Peleg Yerushalmi and Eidah Hachareidis. That unusually broad assembly had the legitimacy to set up a new oversight committee that was both acceptable to the chareidi world and to the authorities.

It was clear that a new era of leadership had begun.

None too soon. Chareidi Jewry today is facing among the most complex challenges that have come up since the founding of the state — most urgently the lack of a law granting a permanent draft exemption to yeshivah students. For over a decade, since the High Court struck down the so-called “Tal Law” that granted yeshivah students exemptions, the issue has been a loaded one in Israeli public life.

The terrible tragedy of Simchas Torah 5784 has ratcheted up the tension to new heights. With tens of thousands of young chareidim effectively in legal limbo, a new draft law is a top priority for the government. Yet with the gap between the chareidi world and public opinion vast, a solution has so far remained out of reach.

One of Rav Moshe Hillel’s first directives after the war began was to call on roshei yeshivah and their talmidim to shorten bein hazmanim last year and to add learning as a zechus for Am Yisrael. In regard to the draft law, the Rosh Yeshivah’s stance is clear: He doesn’t intend to concede an iota on his position regarding the primacy of Torah learning and the necessity of a law protecting the status of yeshivah students, yet his firmness is tempered with compassion for the very many who are suffering, and the wisdom to understand the national mood.

In personal encounters with soldiers and bereaved families, Rav Moshe Hillel is compassionate. When a bereaved parent came to his house to cry and scream about the injustice of bochurim not enlisting, Rav Moshe Hillel stayed quiet, hearing him out and sharing his great pain.

This past October 7, the State of Israel marked one year since the massacre. But for the chareidi public in Eretz Yisrael, who follow the Jewish calendar, the massacre happened on Simchas Torah; the secular date didn’t have special significance. In the shadow of this oblivion, a number of askanim organized a gathering regarding the draft law precisely on October 7, at which Rav Moshe Hillel was slated to speak. A moment before he arrived, one of his family members pointed out the date, and the patent inappropriateness of the timing.

It was too late to cancel the event, but Rav Moshe Hillel decided to address the giant elephant in the room head on. Veering from his planned address, he asked forgiveness for the poor timing, explained what was behind the unfortunate mistake, and commiserated with the nationwide anguish. His words were widely covered in the media.

Alliance Building

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terms of a solution to the draft impasse, Rav Moshe Hillel favors a nonconfrontational approach, eschewing demonstrations and seeking to exert influence behind the scenes. He’s hosted many meetings in his home with high-ranking IDF officials discussing the minute details of the army’s needs. The commanders have expressed to him that what’s holding back a workable solution to the current rift is not the army but the High Court. “With us, you can work it out, with them you can’t,” they’ve said.

Rav Moshe Hillel has come to agree. He views the High Court and the hard left as intractable foes with whom it’s impossible to carry on any dialogue about Jewish values and tradition — a position widely shared across the Israeli right.

At the 2024 Adirei HaTorah event in America, speaking to the 30,000 people filling the Wells Fargo Center, the Rosh Yeshivah attacked the left and the judicial system who are intent on persecuting the Torah world. In his conversations with the prime minister, the Rosh Yeshivah repeated these words.

Although Rav Moshe Hillel has instructed bnei Torah not to report to recruitment offices, he has also instructed chareidi Knesset representatives not to issue an ultimatum that would bring down the government. He believes it’s important not to cause an irreparable rift with the traditional public in Eretz Yisrael with which the chareidi world has built a decades-old political alliance since Rav Shach led the break with the left wing in the ’90s.

“He is following the advice of Rav Steinman, to kick the can down the road,” says a talmid. “This approach has proven itself, and b’ezras Hashem it will prove itself in the future as well.”

Bridging the Gap

The High Court’s determination to strike down every attempt at a law protecting the status of Torah learners as exempt from army service has led to devastating financial consequences for many chareidi families. With tens of thousands of breadwinners in a legal gray zone, the left-wing attorney general has taken a hard line on stripping state funding to yeshivos and kollelim, and removing financial subsidies for families of avreichim.

Those moves have shaken the foundations of the Israeli yeshivah world, and left institutions that were already struggling to meet their budgets with a collective shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Rav Moshe Hillel stepped into the gap. Over the course of a few months last year, he created an emergency fund — Keren Olam Hatorah — with the goal of raising well over $100 million for yeshivos. To launch the drive, he headed an unprecedented mission of gedolei Yisrael from across the chareidi spectrum — including Rav Dov Landau, Rav Yaakov Hillel, Rav Don Segal and the Rachmistrivka Rebbe — who visited North America and London within a few weeks.

As Rav Moshe Hillel stood addressing the crowd in the Wells Fargo Center, one couldn’t help but note the symmetry. Half a century ago, this prime talmid of Rav Aharon left Lakewood for Bnei Brak, a city that was the standard-bearer of the postwar Torah revolution that Rav Aharon had done so much to foster from a distance. Now, when Eretz Yisrael faced its hour of critical need, he was back in New Jersey, uniquely situated to appeal to the American Torah world that had formed him.

The sense of a circle closing was overwhelming. Fifty years before the Israeli yeshivah world would suffer its greatest crisis, Hashem sent across the ocean the one person who would one day be able to bridge the gap.

— With reporting by Gedalia Guttentag and Yehuda Esral

Rav Moshe Hillel on Emunah

When we ask Rav Moshe Hillel for a few words of chizuk in emunah, he smiles and says, “Emunah needs to be spoken about privately in the right places.”

Rav Moshe Hillel — as well as Rav Dov — are opposed to the recent trend in some yeshivos to delve into questions and answers on the subject of emunah.

A few years ago, at one of Slabodka’s camps, the talmidim asked Rav Moshe Hillel why emunah isn’t taught in yeshivos, much the way it is at a kiruv seminar.

Rav Moshe Hillel answered that there actually was an attempt to introduce such a “curriculum” into the yeshivah, but that he and Rav Dov were among its main opponents.

“The proofs about emunah aren’t an exact science, it’s the understandings of the seichel hayashar — and the problem is that not everyone merits seichel hayashar,” he said.

“There was once a bochur in an American yeshivah who had a lot of problems in emunah. When did those problem start? When one of the kiruv organizations came to the yeshivah where he was learning in America and gave a lesson in emunah, asking questions and bringing proof. That bochur said to me, ‘I refuted every proof he brought!’ That’s how he felt.

“And the truth is that this bochur was young, with distorted thoughts that weren’t so smart, and that is why he found ‘refutations’ for everything the lecturer said. But because of that, he got into very problematic issues with emunah.

“That’s the reason why one must not teach these things in public. Organizations like Arachim for baalei teshuvah are something else entirely, because people who have no emunah can certainly be helped by this. But for someone who has emunah, at the age of being a bochur, it can be a great danger.

“So what should a person do if problems in emunah come up for him? The rule is, and I heard this from the Steipler as well, that he has to distract himself and continue, plain and simple! And it’s tried and true. You distract yourself. And after a short time, you see it’s all nonsense, all the doubts are nonsense.

“In cases where it doesn’t help,” the Rosh Yeshivah notes, “one can speak about it on a one-on-one basis. There are places for it, but it’s only regarding individuals and not in public.”

Holding Up Klal Yisrael

As a boy, Rav Moshe Hillel spent his summers in Camp Munk, one of the few camps in those days that strove to provide a kosher haven for Jewish boys during the summer months. One anecdote from those days that became a camp legend recounts how Rabbi Munk, the head counselor, wanted to teach a young Dovid Trenk, who had just become a waiter, how to carry a large tray. As related in Just Love Them: the Life and Legacy of Rav Dovid Trenk, he asked Rav Moshe Hillel, who had helped his father with his catering business, to demonstrate how it was done. As he was carrying the tray filled with bowls of steaming hot soup, a small crowd assembled, but only Dovid Trenk noticed that the tray was beginning to slip. He immediately bolted over to help Rav Moshe Hillel and prevent it from falling. For decades afterward, whenever Rav Dovid would encounter Rav Moshe Hillel, the Rosh Yeshivah would thank him for saving him from the bizyonos of dropping the tray in front of everyone.

Rav Dovid Trenk went on to become a legendary mechanech, first in the Adelphia Yeshiva and then in Moreshes Yehoshua, showing boundless love to boys who didn’t perform well in the traditional yeshivah system. It’s been observed that this story speaks to each of these great men’s respective roles in Klal Yisrael; Rav Moshe Hillel serves as a beacon and guiding light for the olam haTorah, and Rav Dovid Trenk ztz”l was always right behind, ready to catch the bochurim that didn’t succeed at first in the system.

The partnership that held up the tray went on to hold up Klal Yisrael.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1057)