Look who learns Ohr Avigdor with a friend...
Posted by AZ Narrow on 21st Jan 2015
Some readers share their passion for Rabbi Miller’s teachings with others. Meet two devoted readers who study the Ohr Avigdor series on Chovos Halevavos with a group.
Yudis S. (Baltimore, MD) and four dear friends start each day on the phone together. Their telephone learning group has been meeting faithfully each morning from 7:15 – 7:30; they take turns reading each day.
The group was looking forward to beginning Chovos Halevavos when one member suggested the Rabbi Miller version. Yudis ordered the first 3 volumes of the Ohr Avigdor series on Chovos Halevavos from SHP. She comments that Rabbi Miller’s commentary, “Just energizes our day.”
“It’s really had a profound effect on us,” Yudis continues. “Sometimes a comment makes me rethink the davening. Rabbi Miller's clear, perceptive commentaries have given us all new lenses through which to view Hashem's magnificent world.”
Recently, the group finished Ohr Avigdor Shaar Bechinah, and has now moved on to Shaar Avodas Elokim.
Rav Yosef Weissman (Far Rockaway) is a student of Rabbi Leib Kelemen, whose International Organization of Mussar Vaadim provides support for mussar chaburos (study groups) across Israel and North America.
A few years ago, Rabbi Kelemen asked Rav Weissman to join the network of IOMV rabbanim teaching mussar vaadim in the USA. All IOMV vaadim assign mussar readings along with practical avodah, and the text assigns varies from middah to middah. For the middah of hakares hatov (gratitude to Hashem), one of the primary texts used in IOMV vaadim is Ohr Avigdor Shaar Bechinah. Rav Weissman's vaad members purchased 50 copies of that volume just in the last year.
Rav Weissman lauds Rabbi Miller’s translation. “It’s so insightful. He brings Chovos Halevavos to a whole new level. Everybody loves it. He takes a sefer written by a Rishon (Sage of the Middle Ages) and shows in a very practical way how we can apply his words to our lives today. It’s very down-to-earth and understandable. It’s a gift to have this sefer in the vaad.”
(Rabbi Keleman is a staunch supporter of the Ohr Avigdor project; see his introduction to Shaar Bechinah)