Hundreds packed the Bais Medrash of Torah Links in Lakewood on Sunday night, ohr l’daled Elul, for a maamad marking one hundred years since the petirah of Rav Meir Simcha HaKohen of Dvinsk zt”l, the Ohr Somayach and Meshech Chochmah, with close to five hundred more joining by live hookup.

The event was organized by Machon Aleh Zayis, the Lakewood-based Torah publishing house, at the initiative of R’ Dovie Safier and Rabbi Moshe Dembitzer, and was sponsored primarily by R’ Dovie Safier and R’ Tzvi Tress.

Following Mincha and words of welcome from Rav Grumen on behalf of Torah Links, the program was led by Rav Shimon Szimonowitz, Rosh Machon of Machon Aleh Zayis, who noted the presence of Rav Dovid Greenwald – the man who discovered the bulk of Rav Meir Simcha’s manuscripts in the National Library in Yerushalayim in 1967 and first brought them to print – and who traveled from the Catskills to attend despite his advanced age.

Rav Lipa Geldwerth shlita delivered divrei zikaron, recalling among other things the famous passage in the Meshech Chochmah that Rav Baruch Ber and the Gerrer Rebbe would refer to as “the nevuah of Rav Meir Simcha,” in which the churban of European Jewry was foreseen decades in advance.

Rav Yaakov Drillman shlita, Rosh Yeshiva, delivered the yahrtzeit shiur on the sugya of “hav’arah l’lav yatzas,” recalling how his rebbi Rav Yitzchok Hutner zt”l taught him to appreciate the Ohr Somayach, and closed with an emotional plea that the seforim of Acharonim such as the Ohr Somayach, the Avnei Nezer and Rav Yehoshua of Kutna not be neglected in the yeshivos.

Rav Uren Reich shlita, Rosh Yeshiva, closed the evening with a derasha on the Meshech Chochmah that was both fiery and emotional.

In one striking piece he explained, based on the Meshech Chochmah, the Gemara’s statement that the korban of Rosh Chodesh is, kaviyachol, a kapparah for Hashem having diminished the moon: Klal Yisroel’s task in the world is to combat avodah zarah, and the diminishing of the moon left the sun to loom large in the sky, magnifying the allure of sun worship and making that task harder.

On Rosh Chodesh, therefore, Klal Yisroel is granted a measure of leniency – which is why Rosh Hashanah falls on Rosh Chodesh, so that Klal Yisroel enters judgment with that leniency in hand, though it would be unbecoming for us to invoke it, which is why Rosh Chodesh goes unmentioned in the Rosh Hashanah davening.

He ended with the Meshech Chochmah’s words in Parshas Ki Savo, that we must thank Hashem for those who came before us and taught us Torah upon which we build – and, he said, for the Meshech Chochmah itself.

The evening also saw the release of Machon Aleh Zayis’s new English translation of the Meshech Chochmah on Bereishis, the first comprehensive translation of the sefer, with an in-depth commentary by Rav Avrohom Wagner; the Machon accelerated its publication so that it would be available on the yahrtzeit.

Other Rav Meir Simcha–related publications were displayed as well, some for sale and some for free.

Participants described the event as unique in its singular focus on Torah and gedolim. For information on the new sefer: [email protected]

CLICK THE LINK TO WATCH THE FULL VIDEO: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/9ixhx3f7vykr0qtmtaz8o/AUGUST-16-2026-CENTENNIAL-YAHRTZEIT-OF-REB-MEIR-SIMCHA.mp4?rlkey=occdzsie5olglclshmhhpvf1n&st=4ktdn71m&raw=1