Baltimore, MD - Oct. 19, 2025 - Although I did not know Rabbi Hauer well, I would like to describe the subtle way in which he had an impact on me, as a young child. This took place over thirty years ago when he was the assistant rabbi to his father-in-law Rabbi Joseph Baumgarten z”l. At the time, Rabbi Hauer gave a Gemara shiur on Meseches Brachos to few congregants, including my father. The shiur’s location rotated between the houses of the various members of the shiur. At the time, I was five or six years old, and had my own bedroom on the second floor of our house. As a young child, being alone in the dark bedroom was a bit lonely and scary. I remember looking forward to the night when the shiur would be given at our house. It was so comforting to fall asleep to sound of the men learning gemara downstairs. I no longer felt alone. It was safe and secure and I peacefully drifted off to sleep.
I did not grow up in a school where the standard was to go to yeshiva. Yet, at fourteen, I was the only one in my class who left to learn at Ner Yisroel. For over twenty-five years since then, I have been learning in yeshiva and kollel, and then teaching in yeshivos.
I cannot say that this is all due to that beautiful experience of falling asleep to the gemara shiur. But I can say that Rabbi Hauer’s shiur certainly made a sub-conscious positive impact on my association with learning gemara, and helped mold me into someone who would one day devote their life to the learning and teaching of Torah.
We can derive two profound lessons from this story. Firstly, Rabbi Hauer wasn’t even trying to make an impact on me. He came to teach Torah to my father and probably didn’t ever realize that I was upstairs enjoying the sounds of their voices below. Yet, this did have an impact on me. We often don’t even realize who the individuals are upon whom we make a major impression.
I think that there is also a powerful lesson here about chinuch. The mitzva of chinuch is to train our children to do mitzvos so that they will continue doing them when they grow up. Many of us only focus on the former part of this statement – ensuring that our children keep the mitzvos, but we lose focus that the goal is so that they continue doing them when they are older. It is crucial to give children positive associations with mitzvos. I have met many students who have negative associations with certain mitzvos because of the “chinuch” that they received. Or course we need to guidance of our rabbonim how to apply this, but the general rule is that our chinuch should be done in a way that fosters a positive association with mitzvos and a love for them. Through Rabbi Hauer’s shiur, I was the beneficiary of such a positive association.
This past summer, I attended Shabbos davening at Bnei Jacob Shaarei Zion for an aufruf. It was the first time I had davened there in decades. I saw Rabbi Hauer there and was suddenly struck by the fact that he had made this impression upon me in my youth. I wanted to share it with him, but didn’t get the opportunity. That was the last time that I saw him. Although a regret that I wasn’t able to give him the nachas from this, I hope that sharing the lessons derived from it will be a zechus for his neshama.
יהי זכרו ברוך
