Rebbe Rebbe

We have lost our Rebbi, our Rosh Yeshiva, our Mentor, in many ways - our father.
Rav Ahron Walkin zecher tzadik livrocho. I can't even be- lieve these words, just a few days ago we spoke on the phone - Rebbi you were so calm, so reassuring. I called, scared for myself and worried about you, and in a few words - as if all the clouds parted and the sun came out. I can't believe that you are gone. The Walkin family, every single one of them - are like stars in the sky. They seem to just be there, small and unassuming. Until you get closer and closer and you realize that it's not a dot of light - it's a huge ball of burning fire, never ending, never dimming.

Rebbi was born and raised in Kew Gardens, to a family of real erlicher Ovdei Hashem. His grandfather, Rav Shmuel Dovid Walkin zt"l survived the war by escaping with the Mir Yeshiva in Shanghai. A tremendous gaon in Torah, he was a beacon of light and chizzuk while there, and worked tire- lessly to save as many Jews as possible when he came to America in the midst of the war. Rav Moshe Yoel shlit"a, Rav Ahron's father, also seems so simple and down-to-earth. And yet those that know him (and there are many), know of his tremendous Ahavat Yisrael (especially for the Sefardic