Every one of his talmidim felt their rebbe was a malach Hashem tzivakos, an angel of Hashem. They all felt he cared deeply about each one of them. Many of his talmidim to this day still say he made the biggest impression on their lives.
The following story perfectly illustrates the care Rav Moshe had for his talmidim: A friend of mine, who was not in Rav Moshe’s shiur, told me that while he was studying with Rav Moshe, they went over the importance of learning the night before one’s twentieth birthday. This bachur left the yeshiva before his twentieth birthday and was learning in a yeshiva in America. On the night before he turned twenty he called Rav Moshe and asked him if there was something he should say or learn. Rav Moshe faxed him some papers and told him what to say.
Rav Shurkin cited the pasuk “Zos chukas hatorah, adam ki yamus ba’ohel – this is the chok of the Torah, a man dies in the tent” (Bamidbar 19:14). The Gemara extrapolates from this pasuk that in order for one to acquire Torah he must “kill” himself over Torah. The Gemara in Yevamos explains that this refers to mesiras nefesh, self-sacrifice. Rav Shurkin testified that Rav Moshe fulfilled that explanation in every area of his life. He added that Rav Moshe was yamus in the ohel, and that this is the chok of the Torah we do not understand.
May he be a meilitz yosher for his family, his talmidim, and all of Klal Yisrael, amen.
