By COLlive reporter
Rabbi Yoel Kahn, the greatest living scholar of Chassidus Chabad and the chief choizer (reviewer) of the teachings of the Rebbe, is celebrating his 90th birthday on Tuesday.
But you wouldn’t know it if you met him.
Reb Yoel, as he is known, spent his milestone birthday at behind his desk in the 778 office building of Lubavitch World Headquarters in Crown Heights.
What was he working on? “On Sefer Ha’erechim, like he does every day,” a bochur who is close to him told COLlive.com, referring to the multi-volume encyclopedia of abstruse Chassidic and mystical concepts. R’ Yoel is the editor of that series at the instruction of the Rebbe.
His 90th birthday also marked another special date in his life and the tales of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement: It is also the 70th anniversary since he arrived in the United States in 1950 and has settled in New York ever since.
Reb Yoel was born in the former Soviet Union in 1930 and moved to Israel as a young child, where he studied under the guidance of a number of outstanding Chabad scholars.
In his youth already, Reb Yoel was recognized for his rare penetrating intelligence and analytical skills, as well as his remarkable memory. He is considered today the most preeminent authority on Chassidus and a gaon in all areas of Torah.
His arrival in New York and subsequent appointment to the role of chief choizer and meni’ach (reviewer and transcriber) of the Rebbe’s talks have allowed the sichos and maamarim to be documented and published for the sake of their study.
For decades, at each of the Rebbe’s farbrengens, frequently held on Shabbos when recording or writing are not permitted, Reb Yoel would memorize every word of the Rebbe’s discourses which often lasted many hours long. He and a team of bochurim would transcribe the talks after Shabbos.
Today he serves as the head Mashpia of the Central Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch at 770 Eastern Parkway, having educated thousands of bochurim who went on to become Rabbonim, Mashpiim, Chassidim and Shluchim around the world.
ושנים טובות עד ביאת גואל צדק הוא וכל משפחתו בתוככי כלל ישראל בקרוב ממש