Item Description:

He came from a poor, fatherless family in a tiny village. He was barely five feet tall and his manner was as humble as his origins. What were the odds that Yisroel Meir Kagan would become the gadol ha dor? With eye-witness accounts from the people who knew him, Rabbi Wein weeds out the legends from the facts, producing a shining human portrait of a man whose Torah genius was only matched by his love for his fellow Jew.

Individual lectures:

Early Life - Being orphaned at a young age may seem unlikely preparation for leadership of the Jewish people, but it imbued the young Yisroel Meir Kagan with endless compassion for the poor and downtrodden. Rabbi Wein explores the Chofetz Chaim’s family life and years in Volozhin, pointing out the early signs of an outstanding future.

Seforim - With the immortal work that gave him his name, the Chofetz Chaim enjoyed anonymity, appearing to all the world as a book peddler and not an author. But with the Mishnah Brurah, he let his name be known so that “readers will write to me if they find mistakes.” These and the lesser known works of the Chofetz Chaim are the focus of the second lecture of this series. Their common theme was to direct Jews to the Torah path when challenges assaulted them from every side.

Leadership - The Chofetz Chaim was already in his seventies when World War I and the Communist Revolution tore Eastern Europe apart, but he stepped to the fore and became the address for all Jews in need. From his ingenuity in dealing with the Communists to his foresight in avoiding the Germans, this lecture takes us from the turbulent years from 1914 to his death in 1933 when the fate of the Jewish people hung on the precipice.