Every year on Lag B’Omer I think about my rebbi Rav Nisson Alpert ztz”l.

For the last 20 years of his life he was a rosh yeshivah at Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchok Elchonon. Although he was born in the alte heim in Poland he was very at home in the American scene and I talked to him about anything and everything. I can still picture him sitting every morning in the small diner across the street from the yeshivah drinking a coffee (served in a large glass) and eating a black-and-white cookie while reading the paper. At these moments he was easily approachable and quite often I would take advantage of his breakfast ritual to ask him a question on any of the four sections of Shulchan Aruch.

After breakfast except when he was delivering a shiur he would be in his shiur room or his office learning surrounded by six or seven different seforim. His concentration was so complete and his focus on what he was learning so total I could never let myself interrupt him.

He was kind compassionate and friendly and I soon learned how “normal” he really was. As a young bochur I noticed that he’d often arrive at yeshivah from the Lower East Side in a taxi. I overheard one of the other rabbanim ask him how he could afford to take cabs so often. With a twinkle in his eye Rav Nisson replied “Just because I’m a poor man does that mean I also have to live like one?” That answer quickly alerted me to his wonderful and rich sense of humor.

It was his conduct during the last few months of his life that left an indelible impression on my soul. Although aware of his dire prognosis he continued to arrive every day at yeshivah to say his shiur.

When I was went to visit him in the hospital he was so proud to show me the teshuvos in Rav Moshe Feinstein’s Igros Moshe that were addressed to him. Rav Nisson was a talmid muvhak (star pupil) of Rav Moshe ztz”l. He smiled and gushed as he pointed to the teshuvos just like a little boy would point to his name on a “nachas note” sent home by his rebbi; such was Rav Nisson’s total awe and respect for his beloved rebbi.

He gave his last shiur a few days before Pesach. It was just a few days to Pesach; most of the boys had gone home and only a handful was left. Suddenly the elevator opened and out walked Rav Nisson. He was gaunt and pale but he was here. We looked at him and said “Rebbi why did you come in? We could have learned on our own?”

Rebbi looked at us and with a broad smile said “That’s what I was afraid of.” The smile never left his face. He delivered the last shiur on the Haggadah. His last words to us were “Boys remember: We see from Pesach that no matter how bad a situation seems there is always hope there is always the realization that no situation is irreversible. Yeshuos happen all the time; one must have bitachon.”

He never returned to the yeshivah after the Pesach break.

On Monday morning the 17^th of Iyar — Lev B’Omer — Rav Nisson Alpert left This World with total trust in Hashem.

He also left thousands of mourning talmidim.

I am one.