When Rav Avigdor Miller left was niftar on 27 Nissan 5761 (2001), he left behind a radically transformed Torah world - a world he helped revolutionize. Surprisingly, he did so without almost ever leaving the confines of his little shul in Brooklyn.

Despite being born in early twentieth century America, attending public school, and growing up in an environment focused solely on materialism and assimilation, Rav Miller somehow managed to resist the powerful tides of his youth. The path of hatshgachah - a reflection of his own determination to serve Hashem with all his heart - took him to the Yeshivah Eitz Chaim in New York, to the legendary Slabodka yeshivah in Europe, to Chelsea, Massachusetts, to serve as Rav, to Mesivta Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin as Mashgiach, and finally to East Flatbush and later Flatbush as the Rav of a small kehillah.

Along that path, he never stopped working on himself, and he never stopped learning and teaching Torah. One thought at a time, one small action at a time, Rav Miller transformed himself into a supreme eved Hashem. One word at a time, one shiur at a time, Rav Miller transformed virtually every Jew who came in contact with him. His mind-expanding, eye-opening Thursday night lectures - disseminated around the world through his tape recordings - changed the lives of Jews everywhere. His patient, methodical Gemara shiurim turned those who at first could only read from a siddur into accomplished talmidei chachamim. His numerous published books enriched readers with the gift of refreshing clarity as they conveyed hard-hitting, no-nonsense Torah hashkafah.

The story of Rav Miller's life - presented here for the first time in a fascinating, comprehensive biography - is a testimony to the power we all have to transform ourselves, and our world. Rav Avigdor Miller's shiurim on Simchas Hachaim Publishing

This book is a labor of love by a devoted talmid. Although it is a comprehensive biography, it didn't begin that way. It began as a collection of aneCDotes about Rav Miller that demonstrated how the lessons he taught in his mussar vaadim were "living lessons" - what he called his "program for life." To the small groups of b'nei Torah who attended his vaadim, Rav Miller actually revealed the system that helped him become a gadol.

That small collection of aneCDotes ultimately grew into this comprehensive work. But its unusual origin sheds light on what sets it apart. It paints an astonishing picture of how a revolutionary gadol B'Yisrael developed from humble beginnings through myriad tiny steps. It is thus a testimony and, even more so, a guidebook to how real transformation occurs....