The family wondered if Rabbi Elefant would visit this talmid, but AllDaf director Rabbi Moshe Schwed did even better

Siyumim on Maseches Beitzah were held across the globe, but the gathering at the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst had its own unique flavor. Shul member Mr. Moshe Rubin is a Holocaust survivor in his nineties, mostly homebound — and a daf learner. His children showed him the user-friendly AllDaf website from the Orthodox Union, where he discovered Rabbi Moshe Elefant’s shiur. It changed his life, filling his days with meaning and motivation.

The family wondered if Rabbi Elefant would consider visiting this talmid, but AllDaf director Rabbi Moshe Schwed did even better: He arranged the siyum at Mr. Rubin’s shul, where Rabbi Elefant would be the featured guest.

In conversation with the elderly Mr. Rubin, Rabbi Schwed discovered something remarkable: Reb Moshe’s spirit and strength was planted in those first days of hope after the darkness, when he traveled on the boat along with the Klausenberger Rebbe to New York and became one of the founding talmidim of Yeshiva Sheiris HaPleitah in Williamsburg.

Rabbi Schwed was astonished. His grandfather, Reb Shea Brisk, was also among those talmidim of the yeshivah created in the shadow of death, when nothing seemed certain — having nurtured talmidim that still dance together as part of an army of tens of thousands celebrating a siyum masechta.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 881)