I very much appreciated Rabbi Binyamin Krauss’ eulogy for his father, Rabbi Simcha Krauss, zt”l, in last week’s Jewish Link (“HaRav Simcha Krauss, z”l: Gaon, Pioneer, Abba” January 27, 2022). I wish more space could have been devoted within last week’s edition to Rabbi Krauss’ life, legacy and Torah. Speaking for myself and others who got to know him during the later years of his life, which he spent in Riverdale, being with Rabbi Krauss on the street and in local shuls and batei midrash felt like nothing less than encountering a bearer of the mesorah of Mt. Sinai, which we read about hours after Rabbi Krauss’ funeral, and which represents the relationship between God and the Jewish people and the legacy that we continue to carry today.

Rabbi Krauss’ global knowledge of Torah was as palpable as his desire to passionately and unapologetically help others in the spirit of the tradition of Sinai. His work on behalf of agunot and advocacy for the spiritual needs of women in our communities, his ceaseless work in teaching Torah to people in a variety of settings and his making himself accessible and available to those who needed his halachic and spiritual guidance—all of these made him the embodiment of torat chaim v’ahavat chesed.

I urge others to learn more about Rabbi Krauss’ life and legacy, whether by learning his Torah or reading other pieces about him, and I encourage us all to be inspired by his work—to be models of devotion to Torah and kindness. Rabbi Krauss’ presence and influence in the United States, Israel and everywhere in between will be sorely missed. We all have giant shoes to fill.