Rebbe Rebbe

After telling me this story, the Yeshiva administrator re- marked “now you can understand why Rav Shmuel Dovid Walkin was a revered household name when I grew up”. HaRav Ahron Walkin: I once met HaRav Yisroel Pirkovsky zt”l. He was one of the Roshei Yeshiva of Beis HaTalmud of Bensonhurst, and he also went through the Mir in Shanghai. He told me "Your Zeidi’s Chesed and Hachnasat Orchim was from a different level. Astonishingly true even in Shanghai when no one had anything.”

“Your Zeidi didn't just open his home to all who needed, but actually gave away his own bedroom and beds. The Mirrer bachurim always had a home in his tiny apartment during those trying days of WWII.”

Rav Ahron kraiser ztl, a talmid of the Mir, often remarked how the Mirrer bochurim during those dark and difficult days would come to HaRav Shmuel Dovid Walkin for a warm story and a cold drink...

HaRav Ahron Walkin: I once met the Tzadik of Monsey HaRav Mordechai Schwab, zt”l. His family lived in the other half of a partitioned apartment which was split with my grandfather and his family. He too admired the Hachnasat Orchim of my Zeidi in Shanghai and made a point of telling me so.

In wonder I asked him, "How big could this famous apart- ment be? How did it become a home for so many people?” Rav Schwab paused and then responded, “Your Zeidi was a genius in Hachnosat Orchim.”