The untimely passing of Rabbi Akiva Wagner obm, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Lubavitch Toronto, at the age of 55 was a tremendous loss to the Chabad community at large and to his thousands of talmidim around the world.
Through shiurim, farbrengens, and personal hadrocho, his warmth and chayos inspired young and old alike in their hiskashrus and avodas hashem.
Even after a horrible illness was discovered, Rabbi Wagner devoted all his time and energy into the yeshiva, delivering shiurim and leading farbrengens.
In an effort to bring him nachas and in his merit, a group of former talmidim and family began compiling a sefer of Rabbi Wagner’s chiddushim on Meseches Gittin, the mesechta that is currently being studied both in Lubavitcher yeshivas and the daf yomi. Rabbi Wagner enthusiastically encouraged the initiative and contributed hundreds of pages of unpublished chiddushim and biurim to be added to the sefer. In addition to Gittin, the sefer includes a section of haoros and biurim on the moadim and the Rebbe’s Haggadah.
On the occasion of the shloshim, Tuesday 17th of sivan, the sefer, titled אמרי עקיבא, has been published and is now available to the public.
Those who merited to study under Rabbi Wagner can attest to his Ahavas HaTorah and Hasmodah. He was constantly learning and he threw himself into it with vigor, delving into the depths of a sugya and never sufficing with just a cursory understanding. His shiurim would often begin with exacting questions on the sugya and rishonim. The answers, often presented through penetrating analysis and chakira, would present a revolutionary mehalech to the subject matter in a way that would neatly resolve the difficulties raised.
Rabbi Wagner had a deep appreciation and awe for the Rebbeim’s Torah and he would often draw on their teachings in his shiurim. “If he found an apparent contradiction between two different places, he would insist that the issue lay with his understanding of the subject matter and that further analysis would produce the answer,” said Rabbi Kalman Weinfeld, Rov of Bais Eliezer Yitzchok and a Member of the Executive Vaad of the OK Kosher and Rabbi Wagner’s brother-in-law. This approach often led him to find astounding chiddushim in their Torah, uncovering deeper layers of understanding that only his gifted mind could unearth.
To his Talmidim, the sefer will recall some of their best learning experiences in Yeshiva and to those who only heard about the legendary Rosh Yeshiva, it will offer a glimpse of what made Rabbi Wagner so beloved.
“Rabbi Wagner’s teachings and hadrocho continues to inspire people around the world. We hope that this sefer will be a zechus for his neshama and hasten the coming of Moshiach when הקיצו ורננו שוכני עפר, may it be speedily in our days,” the organizers of the project said.
Click here to download a sample from the new Sefer
