Rabbi Avrohom Samber

At any time of the night or day, anyone who walks into the Toras Moshe Beis Medrash can be certain to find Rabbi Avrohom Samber. More likely than not, one will find a talmid with him, engaged in conversation about learning, hashkafah or life’s puzzling twists and turns.

“Rabbi Samber is a yoetz,” says the Rosh Yeshiva, HaRav Moshe Meiselman. “He has an ear for everything.”

Through his position as maggid shiur for first-year bochurim, many of the Yeshiva’s talmidim are fortunate enough to get to know Rabbi Samber right away. He serves as a critical bridge between the younger bochurim, who sometimes find it challenging to embrace the Yeshiva’s hashkafic principles and the more senior hanhala, whose relationship with the talmidim is more formal. However, even those who do not sit in his shiur have many opportunities to forge a connection. As the menahel of the Beis Medrash, he is, as one bochur put it, “the most available rebbi imaginable.”

Of course, simply being available doesn’t make a person into a wise and sought-after advisor. Yehoshua Witty, a recent talmid at Toras Moshe, says the boys gravitate to Rabbi Samber because of his “tremendous insight into personalities. He is a great listener who truly understands people, and his advice is very well thought-through.”

Reb Boruch Vann, who spent five years as a bochur in Toras Moshe and joined the Kollel after his marriage to Rabbi Samber’s niece, recalls his earlier days in Yeshiva. It was in Rabbi Samber’s shiur that Boruch felt he really learned how to decipher the specific points that Rashi and Tosafos were bringing out – a skill which has served him well ever since. He also had the privilege of learning Mesillas Yesharim with Rabbi Samber over the course of two years. “In general, he helped me to grow,” says Boruch. “His thinking is very pure, and that’s why people rely on him to help them know what to do in any situation. People enjoy speaking to him and really appreciate his insight, encouragement, and perspective, especially in weighty matters such as shidduchim.”

An amusing anecdote truly illustrates the unique level of closeness that talmidim feel. Before the Friday night seudah in his home, Rabbi Samber was bentching his children. A visiting talmid was completely unpretentious and totally comfortable slipping into the line so that he too, would get “bentched” from his beloved rebbi.

Rabbi Samber, who was raised in Chicago, came to Toras Moshe as a dorm counselor after learning in Yeshivat HaNegev in Eretz Yisrael. He then married Yehudis Tendler, the daughter of the late Rabbi Yosef Tendler, zatzal, menahel of Ner Yisrael High School in Baltimore. Upon returning to Israel, Rabbi Samber joined the staff of Lakewood East, and subsequently returned to Yeshivas Toras Moshe as a maggid shiur.

Since then, Rabbi Samber has been teaching and guiding Toras Moshe boys with his combination of openness, honesty and as one talmid emphasized, “a witty, well-developed sense of humor.” It’s the kind of connection that makes an impact, not just for the few years of a talmid’s presence at the Yeshiva, but for a lifetime.