Nosson Meir Wachtfogel

Nosson Meir Wachtfogel (נתן מאיר וכטפוגל) (18 February 1910 in Kuliai, Lithuania – 21 November 1998 in Lakewood, New Jersey, USA), known as the Lakewood Mashgiach, was an Orthodox rabbi and long-time mashgiach ruchani (spiritual supervisor) of Beth Medrash Govoha (the Lakewood Yeshiva) in Lakewood, New Jersey.

He was one of the primary builders of that yeshiva into a world-class institution, enacting the goals and direction set forth by its founding rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Aharon Kotler.

He also helped establish "branches" of the Lakewood Yeshiva in dozens of cities, and pioneered the community kollel concept with the opening of combination Torah learning/outreach centers in the United States and other countries.

A revered mentor and guide to thousands of students over a career that spanned more than 50 years, he was a strong advocate and prime example of musar study and working on one's spiritual self-development.

Nosson Meir Wachtfogel was born on 9 Adar I, 1910, in the small Lithuanian town of Kuliai, where his father, Rabbi Moshe Yom Tov Wachtfogel, was rav.

His father was a student of the Alter of Slabodka and one of the original 14 students of the Eitz Chaim Yeshiva in Slutsk headed by Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer.

Nosson Meir studied in the Kelm Talmud Torah as a youth.

In the early 1920s, his father accepted a rabbinical post in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and moved there with his mother, while Nosson Meir remained in Kuhl to complete his mesivta program.

At age 15 he rejoined his parents in Canada and then went to learn at Yeshiva University's Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan in New York.

Among his study partners were future American rabbinical leaders Rabbis Avigdor Miller, Moshe Bick, and Yehuda Davis.

A few years later, when the yeshiva added secular studies to its curriculum, Nosson Meir staged a protest, urging his friends to quit the yeshiva and go to study in the great yeshivas of Europe.

At age 17, he himself enrolled at the Mir yeshiva in the town of Mir, Belarus, where he remained for seven years.

The musar emphasis and personal example of the Mir mashgiach, Rabbi Yeruchom Levovitz, and his successor, Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein, had a profound influence on Wachtfogel, who devoted the rest of his life to studying and disseminating musar and working on personal character development.

He also studied under Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz, rosh yeshiva of the Kaminetz yeshiva in Poland.

When Wachtfogel's mentor, Rabbi Levovitz, died in the summer of 1936, he decided to return to Canada.

At that point he received semicha (rabbinic ordination) from Rabbi Leibowitz and Rabbi Shimon Shkop, rosh yeshiva of the Grodno yeshiva.

He also received semicha from Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, rosh yeshiva of the Mir.

When his ship reached New York, he heard that Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, rosh yeshiva of the Baranowitz Yeshiva, was fund-raising in that city, and went to talk with him about his concerns about living in materialistic America.

Rabbi Wasserman advised him to return immediately to Europe and study in the Kelm Talmud Torah, which was known for its strong emphasis on musar and character-building.

Although he had not seen or spoken to his parents for seven years, Wachtfogel received their blessings to return to Europe.

He remained in Kelm for over three years, studying mostly under Rabbi Daniel Movshovitz.

Even after World War II broke out, he continued to learn in the yeshiva, astounding those who found out he could leave any time with his Canadian passport.

Near the end of this period, he became engaged to Chava Shlomowitz, daughter of Rabbi Yisrael Zalman Shlomowitz (Rav of Geniendz) and a graduate of Sarah Schenirer's teacher's seminary in Kraków.

In June 1940, the Russians entered Kelm as part of the Russian occupation of the Baltic states and proceeded to confiscate businesses, enforce rationing, and put their sympathizers in control.

British citizens in Kelm were advised by the British Consulate in Kovno to travel to Kovno and from there to be evacuated to Australia.

Wachtfogel and another Canadian learning in Kelm, Rabbi Shmuel Shecter, together with Wachtfogel's bride, Chava Slomowitz, joined a group of British citizens stranded in Kelm—including the wife and daughter of Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler—and a group from the Telshe Yeshiva on their flight to Australia.

In order to procure a visa for his bride, Wachtfogel had to prove that they were married.

They did this by conducting the first half of their Jewish marriage ceremony, erusin, in Kovno; their chuppah took place after they reached Montreal.

The group departed on a Shabbat, 26 October 1940, taking a train to Moscow via Riga.

The next day they boarded the Trans-Siberian Express to Vladivostok, a journey of nine days, during which the religious Jews had nothing to eat but fruit and tea.

From Vladivostok, they traveled by steamship to Brisbane, a voyage of nearly four and a half weeks (here their rations were limited to sardines, eggs, and tomatoes).

While the British citizens in the group spent over six years in Australia waiting to be repatriated, Wachtfogel, Schechter and Wachtfogel's bride were given first-class tickets to New York by the Board of Governors of the Australian Jewish community, which feared that these Torah scholars would foment a religious revival in their community.

In spring 1942 R’Wachtfogel and 19 other avreichim (young married men) started the first kollel in America, called Beth Medrash Govoha, in White Plains, New York.

Seeking a great Torah scholar to head their learning program, they offered the position to Rabbi Aharon Kotler.

R’ Kotler agreed, but asked that they move the kollel to Lakewood, New Jersey, and admit bachurim (unmarried young men) in order to turn it into a full-scale, European-style yeshiva.

The avreichim agreed and became Rabbi Kotler's first students when he founded Beth Medrash Govoha.

In 1943 Kotler asked Wachtfogel to become the yeshiva's mashgiach ruchani, a position he held for more than 50 years until his death, serving under three successive generations of roshei yeshiva: Rabbis Aharon Kotler, Shneur Kotler, and Malkiel Kotler.

Even as mashgiach, he acted more like a student of Rabbi Kotler, attending the rosh yeshiva shiurim (Torah lectures) and shmuessim (musar talks) with the rest of the students.

Out of respect for his Rav, he never gave a shmuess of his own in the main study hall as long as Kotler was alive.

In addition to caring for the students' welfare, Wachtfogel was the guardian and implementer of the spirit and goals which Kotler intended for his yeshiva, including the emphasis on Torah and musar study.