Welcome to the Rav Aharon Kotler zt"l Site!

Foreword

The working (or tentative) title that I have chosen for this endeavor is "Pri Tsadik Eitz Chaim"---Sunday, July 7, 2002

I adapted this title from a drosho that I heard in the Beth Medrash Govoha Dining room during a Sholosh Seudos by H"HG Rav E. Simcha Wasserman Z"TL more than 16 years ago. The essence of what Rav Wasserman ZT"L said was that the student body sitting before him, at that moment was representative of the fruits of the labor and struggle that Rav Aharon ZT"L pursued here in his lifetime. He depicted this assembly and the Yeshiva here in Lakewood and the movement across America and for that matter the world as a flourishing and ongoing phenomenon. Herewith I wish to capture some insight of how the living tree of Torah was perpetuated from Har Sinai, throughout the millennia and transplanted, after the Churban of the European Torah world, on these shores by the colossal Gaon and Zadik, Reb Aharon ZT"L and other surviving Torah giants and students, remnants of our glorious spiritual past.

The Purpose:

The intent of this endeavor is to capture and preserve on tape, CD, or whatever emerging form of electronic media available, the personal subjective impressions that the Gadol HaDor R' Aharon Kotler ZT"L made on his students (and others).  Those who were of the generation of American Jewish youth and Askonim in the 1940's, 1950's and early 1960's before R' Aharon was Niftar in 1962. These students and others, include the ranks of Bnai Torah, Askonim and Baalei Batim, who were swept under his influence, and comprised the cadre, which eventually built the Torah movement that is identified with the Beth Medrash Govoha (BMG) of Lakewood and its offshoots.  I hope IY"H  that those who hear these recordings will glean a vision of and be inspired by the essence of what the R"Y R' Aharon Z"L and BMG in Lakewood represent. These audible records hopefully will portray how it evolved and how he inspired the glorious ever flourishing branches which have, and continue, to revolutionize the world of Torah and Yiddishkeit as we know it today in America, Eretz Yisroel, and throughout the world, Ad Bi-as Go-el Zedek Bimhairo Binyomainu Omain KY"R.