The Chanukah issue of the COLlive Magazine, published this past month, once again included the “8 Nights, 8 Lights” feature. This time it profiled 8 maggidei shiurim dedicated to teaching Torah, Halacha and Chassidus in Crown Heights. The project was done in conjunction with the Irgun Torah organization.
Chanukah #3:
Rabbi Shmuel Heber
Every day, I give a shiur at the Kollel at Empire Shteibel from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM. We learn Gemarah Kiddushin Monday through Thursday and on Shabbos morning, I give a shiur on a Maamer Chassidus from 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM which is entering its 6th year.
For thirty years, I have been teaching a Gemara shiur twice a week. Now, I teach it in the morning. We finished all of the Shas and are now learning l’iyun. It’s deep and takes longer because we learn many mefarshim.
A highlight of giving shiurim is when you prepare, and the crowd understands, asks questions, and are interested. When more people come to the shiur, and you get satisfaction from that too. Our shiurim are open and free for everyone. If someone is semi-retired or has free time in the morning, I would suggest coming to our shiur and learning Gemara b’iyun like it was in yeshiva. If you can, take an hour in the morning and give it to learning, Gemara or Chassidus.
From the Sichos of the Rebbe, it is clear that a Jew needs to learn Gemara every day. Vehagisa bo yomam valayla – you need to learn in the morning and evening. Everyone is required to learn, whatever time you have – an hour or half an hour a day.
He’s the best speaker.i love listening to him
A genius of a man!
A brilliant scholar, a huge talmid chochom, and a wonderful mentsch.
His mehalach of treating each person with utmost derech eretz (even wise-guy teenagers, — yes I speak from personal experience) is astounding, and is still felt by his talmidim years later.
He was an inspiration to me 47 years ago, when I was in Morristown, and he continues to be an inspiration today.