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Rabbi Bentzion Shenker z”l

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It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the sudden passing this morning of Rabbi Bentzion Shenker z”l. He was 91 years old.

Reb Bentzion was the famed musical secretary of the admorim of Modzitz and a renowned composer, who wrote some of the most well-known niggunim in the frum world, such as Aishes Chayil, Yosis Alayich and Mizmor L’Dovid.

Born in 1925, four years after his parents had immigrated from Poland, Reb Bentzion Shenker’s family first settled on the East Side of Manhattan and moved to Williamsburg. They then resettled in Bedford-Stuyvesant/Crown Heights. After attending public school for first grade, “Bennele,” as he was known, attended Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, then located in Williamsburg, for elementary school, and also for mesivta, until 1947.

At a young age, Bennele was recognized as a precocious boy with a goldene voice. His mother later remarked that her Bennele, at the young age of two or three, never needed any toys to keep himself occupied. Realizing how musically gifted her son was, she simply sat him down at a Victrola. Bennele sat at the Victrola for hours, amusing himself and memorizing the popular cantorial pieces of the day. One record after the next, the hours would fly by.

At about age 12, Bentzion’s musical interest and singing talent were further honed when he joined Chazzan Yehoshua Weiser’s choir.

In 1938, right after my bar mitzvah, Weiser took him to a studio to record one of his songs, Der Alter Chazzan, and he also presented him as a soloist in live radio performances and concerts.

While Reb Bentzion was a member of the choir, he began learning how to write and read music, also studying with Seymour Silbermintz, a brother of the well-known Agudah activist Rabbi Joshua Silbermintz, from 1939 to 1941.

As a bochur, in the late 1940s, Reb Bentzion would spend time on Motzoei Shabbos with two of his friends, Rav Moshe Wolfson and Reb Shlomo Carlebach. Rav Wolfson would later become rov of Bais Medrash Emunas Yisroel of Boro Park and mashgiach ruchni of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, while Reb Shlomo went on to become a famous composer and singer.

At that time, each Motzoei Shabbos, the three young yeshiva bochurim would head to the West Side of Manhattan to join the Bobover Rebbe, Rav Shlomo Halberstam zt”l.

It was in 1940, the week of Parshas Noach, when Reb Bentzion was 15 years old, that his lifelong bond with the chassidus of Modzitz and its great admorim was forged.

The second Modzitzer Rebbe, Rav Shaul Yedidya Elazer Taub zt”l (1886-1947), known as the Imrei Shaul, succeeded his father, Rav Yisroel, in 1920. With the outbreak of World War II, he fled from Poland to Vilna, in Lithuania, and from there he made his way across Russia to Shanghai, China, eventually arriving in America and settling in New York.

On Friday night, Reb Bentzion and his father joined a group of people who walked from the Poilisher shteeble on Dekalb Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where they davened, to attend the Rebbe’s tish in Williamsburg. He was thus exposed for the first time to the Modzitzer Rebbe, whose music he would later make famous and would preserve for more than half a century.

Reb Bentzion’s father hailed from a town in Poland located not far from Modzitz and thus already had a connection to the chassidus and the Rebbe.

A few months later, the Rebbe was invited to spend Shabbos at the large Van Buren Shul in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Shabbos morning, the Rebbe, who had been staying at the home of a chossid of his, invited Reb Bentzion’s father to join for the Shabbos seudah, remarking, “Bring your son along as well.”

Reb Bentzion’s father told him and his brother, Avrohom, to first go home and make Kiddush for their mother before joining the Rebbe’s meal.

Reb Bentzion told Rabbi Yitzchok Hisiger of Yated Ne’eman the following in an interview: “When I came into the house where the Rebbe was staying, I saw him sitting at the head of a table. There were about a minyan of people there. I sat down on a couch located right behind the Rebbe and I noticed a sefer there on the side of the couch called ‘Lachassidim Mizmor,’ written in 1935 by R’ Meir Geshuri of Yerushalayim. The sefer contained a biography of the Modzitzer Rebbe and other rebbes, as well as musical notations of Modzitzer niggunim. I opened the sefer and started humming the songs to myself as I read the notes. I guess it was audible and the Rebbe heard me humming a niggun of his. He turned around, looked at me, and saw that I was a young child. I looked even younger than my age because I was very short. The Rebbe said to me, ‘Kentst lainin nutten?’ (Do you know how to read the notes?)’ I said, ‘Ah bissel (A little bit).’ He said, ‘Nu, lomir heren (let us hear)!’ The Rebbe encouraged me, so I kept on going, one niggun after another.”

Reb Bentzion held the Rebbe and the guests spellbound.

“The Rebbe very much enjoyed it, surprised that even though I had not known these songs before, I was able to sing them, and he told me to continue. He then asked me my name and I said, ‘Bentzion.’”

As the Rebbe sat there, listening to the young boy sing the Modzitzer niggunim from the musical notes in the sefer, he was astounded. That a child of this age could read notes with such fluency was mind-boggling to him.

At the end of the meal, the Rebbe asked Reb Bentzion to sing “Shir Hamaalos,” so he sang one of the Rebbe’s niggunim for those words.

“The Rebbe was surprised that I knew the niggun. I explained that it had just recently been brought over from Poland. He couldn’t get over it! As I continued, however, I rushed to finish the song, because I got very, very nervous singing in front of a rebbe at such a young age. At that point, the Rebbe taught his first lesson to me in neginah. He said, ‘Don’t sing like a choo-choo train, but like a zeiger, a clock: tick-tock, tick-tock. Sing slowly, on beat.’

“The rest, as they say, is history,” Reb Bentzion reflects with a wide smile. “That was my introduction to the Rebbe and the beginning of my kesher with the Rebbe.”

Reb Bentzion became the de facto musical secretary of the Rebbe, who could not read or write music, and he notated the Rebbe’s niggunim from 1940 to 1947. He also assisted in the publication of the Tiferes Yisroel journal, which included many of the Rebbe’s earliest niggunim. Over the years, Reb Bentzion accumulated a treasury of hundreds of previously unpublished melodies from the three admorim of the Modzitzer dynasty.

Chazzan Weiser, who was introduced by Reb Bentzion to the Modzitzer Rebbe, also notated some of the Rebbe’s niggunim.

“I used to notate the simpler niggunim of the Rebbe,” he says. “When I came to a very complicated one, I called Weiser, who was so excited that I introduced him to the Rebbe. I didn’t want to take it on my achrayus to write some of the songs that were very complex. Weiser would sit down and write them as easy as you say Ashrei. He would write chazzanus and speak on the phone at the same time. His talent was remarkable. That was his miktzoah (field) and he was very good at it.”

In 1949, Reb Bentzion married his aishes chayil, Dina, and settled in East Flatbush in an apartment house owned by his aunt.

Reb Bentzion would daven locally Friday night with the Kozhnitzer Rebbe, but on Shabbos morning, he and his wife would walk to his parents in Crown Heights for the Shabbos seudah.

Later, Reb Bentzion relocated to Crown Heights, where he remained until 1976, at which time he moved to Flatbush.

In Flatbush, at the same time that Reb Bentzion settled there, a grandson of the Modzitzer Rebbe opened a shul, assuming that Reb Bentzion would be the chazzan, a position he filled for eleven years.

Later, in 1989, Reb Bentzion and others established the Modzitzer shteeble on Coney Island Avenue, and he has been the chazzan there ever since. In fact, each year, Reb Bentzion composed new niggunim that are taught to the mispallelim before Rosh Hashanah.

The levayah will take place today at 1 p.m. at Shomrei Hadas Chapels, located at 3803 14th Ave in Brooklyn, NY 11218.

Reb Bentzion is survived by a beautiful mishpacha following in his ways: his children are Mrs. Esther Reifman, Mrs. Adele Newmark and Mrs. Brocha Weinberger.

Yehi zichro boruch.

{Matzav.com}


Photos: First Snow of the Season in Kiryas Yoel, NY (JDN)

Phots: Snow in Camp Simcha at the Achim B’Yachad/Chai Lifeline Volunteers Shabbaton

Photos: At the Levaya of Rabbi Ben Zion Shenker zt”l

Gafni: Housing Situation Borders On Pikuach Nefesh

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UTJ politicians recently spoke to the Israeli Yated Ne’eman of Israel’s critical housing shortage and what should be done about it.

MK Moshe Gafni said there was still no real solution to the problem. Plans to improve matters were still half baked and inapplicable. The situation was worsened by the government behaving as if it had no accountability and shunting responsibility onto the private sector. Half of what people pay for their exorbitant apartments was actually government taxes, Gafni noted, adding that the Viznitzer Rebbe and Chevron rosh yeshiva Rav Dovid Cohen told him that the situation bordered on pikuach nefesh.

MK Yaakov Asher said in the Yated interview that at least 6,000 chareidi couples marry every year, yet only a few hundred new apartments are made available for the sector on an annual basis.

Although the government promised to build more chareidi projects and mayors were encouraged to earmark sections of new building projects for chareidim, who comprise about twenty percent of the population, little of this was implemented so far.

MK Uri Maklev threatened that chareidim would boycott Knesset votes on housing issues if the situation did not improve.

“We do not intend to bring down the government and not to vote in critical issues,” he said, “but in matters pertaining to housing we will not vote.”

{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}

Israeli Town Rabbonim: 12 Over 90, 40 Over 80

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Twelve of Israel’s town rabbonim are over ninety-years-old and forty have passed eighty.

In response to complaints of the Ne’emanei Torah Va’avodah organization that the rabbinate is atrophying and needs new blood, an official of the Religious Affairs Ministry argued, “We recently parted from President Shimon Peres, who functioned until his last day at the age of ninety. Each one of knows people above ninety who are clear minded and functioning.

“A rov does not need physical fitness but particularly cognitive ability,” the official added. “Not for nothing do the sources compare the old to the wise. In these contexts, age is an advantage. The initiative to base the rabbinate on a democratic communal model is a spin. Rav Elyashiv, Rav Ovadiah, and in contrast, Rav Steinman and others, served and serve as pillars of spiritual strength to people even in old age.”

The names in the rabbinate list include Rav Yaakov Edelstein who is 92 and served as rov of Ramat Hasharon for the past 65 years, as well as 86-year-old Rav Simchah Hakohein Kook of Rechovot. Former Chief Rabbi Yisroel Meir Lau (79), who presently serves as chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, is expected to retire soon.

{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}

Photos: The Toldos Aharon Rebbe Visiting the Home of Rabbi Moshe Avrohom Rosenberg in Boro Park (JDN)

Photos: At the Levayah in Bnei Brak of Rav Nosson Tzvi Shulman zt”l, Rosh Yeshivas Slabodka (JDN)


Rabbi Elimelech Zweibel zt”l

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Courtesy of Chabad.org:

Rabbi Elimelech Zweibel, the lead mashpi’ah roshi in Chassidic thought and practice at Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch in Morristown, N.J., for the past 50 years, passed away suddenly on Sunday. He was 75 years old.

Over the course of his tenure, he was a mentor and guide to thousands of students, who loved him for his gentle warmth and dedication as a teacher, and who revered him for the seriousness of his character and for the comprehensive clarity of his scholarship. He was known to one and all by the affectionate moniker, “Reb Meilich.”

Through his classes, farbrengens, encouragement and living example, Reb Meilich gave students the conceptual tools to probe the depths of Chassidic literature, to contextualize Chassidic teachings within the wider history of Jewish thought and history, and to see how these teachings were to be applied in the practical service of G‑d.

Reb Meilich was famous for his uniquely comprehensive erudition. He was a master of chassidic literature, lore and custom and a master of Talmud and Jewish law. In addition, he was familiar with the great works of classical Jewish thought and learning, and with contemporary rabbinic scholarship. But part of his greatness as a teacher was that he was also a skilled storyteller. He would use a story to illustrate a point, tell more stories to sharpen the portrait of the first story’s protagonist, and then return to round out the point with yet another story.

Many of his students fondly remember trekking through the snowy woods of Morris County to sit around Reb Meilich’s table on wintry Friday nights. Those who made that trip week after week soon entered into a world populated by the living memories of exemplary Chassidim—some more famous, others less so; some who he had known in person, others only by reputation. He didn’t draw anecdotes only from other people’s lives but also from his own, and so his students came to know him too.

From Tel Aviv to Lod, and Back

Fire trucks (upper left) at the Rabbnnical College did not interrupt Rabbi Zweibel's intensive daily regimen of prayer and study. (Photo: Tzvi Kilov)
Rabbi Elimelech Zweibel was born in Tel Aviv in 1941 to Rabbi Tzvi Yaakov and Hinda Minka Zwiebel. His father was a Chassid of old Sanz lineage who became affiliated with Bobov, a sub branch of the Sanz dynasty. As a child, he attended the Chinuch Atsma’i school in Tel Aviv before enrolling in the Chabad yeshivah in nearby Lod at the age of 11. The latter institution had the double attraction, he would recall, of having a dorm and being situated in an orange grove.

In Lod, Reb Meilich came under the tutelage of Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Kesselman, who had been a student in the original Tomchei Temimimyeshivah in the Russian townlet of Lubavitch. Rabbi Shlomo Chaim placed a great emphasis on avodah, the disciplined subjection of the self to the constant service of G‑d. Reb Meilich described him as “a maivin in avodah,” meaning that he had a thorough knowledge and understanding of how to harness the mind and heart in the service of G‑d, and of how to train young students in the rigors of conscientious self-discipline and effacement before G‑d. Reb Meilich recalled that on returning home after his first stay at the yeshivah in Lod, one of the local Chabad Chassidim met him in the street and asked rhetorically: “So, you know now that all the world is worth no more than an onion skin?”

Rabbi Shlomo Chaim was generally dismissive of his Chassidic contemporaries who devoted themselves with similar single-mindedness to plumb the more theoretical depths of Chabad’s conceptual universe. In 1959, however, the Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—wrote to him instructing that the yeshivah students compose and publish explanations of Chassidic texts and concepts, and so he reconsidered this attitude. He dispatched a small group of students, including Reb Meilich, to be instructed by two Chabad thinkers of renown: Rabbi Moshe Gourarie and Rabbi Nochum Goldshmidt.

The students understood very little of what Gourarie said. The subject matter was far more esoteric than they were used to, and his explanatory style was characterized by intense abstraction. Goldshmidt’s presentation was far more accessible; they were able to grasp the ideas and coherently transcribe them. But what Reb Meilich remembered best was Goldshmidt’s response when they told him that Gourarie had discussed the Zoharic dictum, “the infinite light extend upward without limit, and downward without end.” “Aha!” exclaimed Goldshmidt, “There he is at home!” Recalling this episode, Reb Meilich would often explain that every Chassid has his own conceptual prism that he returns to again and again, and through which he approaches and understands the entire corpus of Chassidic ideas and teachings.

An Intellectual and Experiential Eye-Opener

In 1962, Reb Meilich was part of the first group of students to travel from Israel to study in the central Tomchei Temimim yeshivah at 770 Eastern Parkway, Lubavitch World Headquarters in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y. Upon arrival, they were quizzed by Rabbi Shmuel Levitin, a senior Chassid and member of the faculty. When he asked if anyone knew where the Yiddish exclamation gevald appeared in Chabad literature, Reb Meilich immediately responded, citing a discourse delivered by the fifth Chabad Rebbe in the year 1900. Levitin was sufficiently impressed by this demonstration of erudition and shared the news with the Rebbe, who asked for the name of the student in question. At a loss, Levitin could only respond that the student wore glasses, provoking an amused laugh from the Rebbe.

During his time as a student in 770, Reb Meilich became a chozer, one of the oral scribes who memorized the Rebbe’s talks, and oversaw their transcription and publication. Subsequently, he would become a senior member of the team responsible for redacting and merging related talks into the more tightly argued essays that were reviewed by the Rebbe and published under the title Likutei Sichot. These edited essays would eventually fill 39 volumes and stand as the most authoritative exemplar of the Rebbe’s scholarly output.

Rabbi Zweibel, left, with Rabbi Meir Tzvi Gruzman, Rabbi Zalman Gopin and Rabbi Yoel Kahn at the annual Yarchei Kallah gathering of leading Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis in Upstate New York.
Rabbi Zweibel, left, with Rabbi Meir Tzvi Gruzman, Rabbi Zalman Gopin and Rabbi Yoel Kahn

Reb Meilich once remarked that listening to the Rebbe talk for hours on end was an intellectual and experiential eye-opener. “At every farbrengen, the Rebbe would speak of atzmut—the essence of divine being that transcends all conception. From Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Kesselman—and even from Rabbi Moshe Gourarie—we never heard anything like this.” The world of Chassidic ideas is vast, ranging from contemplative techniques designed to inspire love and awe before G‑d, to intricate investigations of psychological processes and the nuances of human character, to the esoteric conceptualization of Kabbalistic metaphysics. But Reb Meilich came to understand that for the Rebbe, this vast corpus of ideas all revolved around the single goal of revealing the essence of divine being in the physical world, and in the daily activities of ordinary people.

Emphasizing this point, Reb Meilich recalled two rare instances where the intensity of the Rebbe’s excitement during his talk was conveyed with an exuberant flourish of his raised hands. (Usually, the Rebbe’s hands would remain held tightly together, concealed from most of the audience beneath the tablecloth.)

On one occasion, the Rebbe dwelt on the fact that the very first word of the Ten Commandments, anochi—“I”, which refers to the very essence of G‑d’s own self—is not Hebrew but Egyptian; not the holy tongue, but the language of those who had enslaved the Jewish people, and whose extreme moral depravity earned them the label “obscenity of the earth.” Emphasizing the seeming absurdity, the Rebbe raised both hands above his head, exclaiming, “Can you envisage this! Anochi is Egyptian!” At the very outset, the Rebbe went on to explain, G‑d wanted to underscore that the purpose of the revelation at Sinai was not simply to illuminate the holy, but to transform even the nadir of profanity through revealing the very essence of divinity.

On the second occasion recalled by Reb Meilich, the Rebbe discussed Chapter 27 of Tanya, which describes a person who resists a negative thought even for a single moment as eliciting a transcendent revelation of divine pleasure that extends throughout all existence. Twirling his hand in an upward sweep, the Rebbe declared; “With one act of self-subjugation, all realms are upturned!”

Marriage and Vocation

In 1965, Reb Meilich married Libby Blesofsky, and in the same year was appointed to the faculty of Tomchei Temimim yeshivah in Newark, N. J., which was later relocated to Morristown. When they first met, both parties were initially unsure that the match was right. Reb Meilich’s birthday occurred during this period, and he had a private audience with the Rebbe, as was customary at the time. When he disclosed his hesitations, the Rebbe indicated that he should set them aside. For her part, Libby forthrightly sought the Rebbe’s advice, asking in a written note whether “I should take interest in another option.” The Rebbe crossed out the last words of that sentence and added another line so that the note now indicated that she “should interest herself in a young man whose Torah is a living Torah, which speaks his praises—a chassid, a Torah scholar, a person of good character, etc., and G‑d will make her successful.”

Dancing with students in 1978 (5738)
Dancing with students in 1978 (5738)

Taking up his faculty position, Reb Meilich sought advice from the Rebbe regarding his personal curriculum of study. The latter pointed out that few yeshivah graduates ever achieve comprehensive knowledge of the Codes of Jewish Law—Tur, Shulchan Aruch and their many commentaries—and suggested that this would be a good personal goal. Over the course of the next 50 years, Reb Meilich kept up a rigorous program of study. His days ran like clockwork, and he often spoke of the merits of discipline, deliberation and order. He arrived and left the study hall at the same time each day, and had fixed times for eating, for meeting with students and for each of his many personal learning schedules.

In more recent decades, he only taught classes in Chassidism—rather than in Talmud or halachah. Yet he continued to study the Talmudic texts and commentaries that were on the yeshivah curriculum, returning to them anew year after year. And though there were Chassidic discourses that he likewise taught to one group of students after another, he never allowed himself to rely on his existing knowledge and enter a class unprepared. He was a perpetual student, capable of relearning and revisiting a text many times, always alert to unnoticed nuances and open to new discoveries. In more recent years, he often used an iPod stocked with audio recordings of the Rebbe’s talks. Always curious to hear from others, he would occasionally listen to classes in Chassidism from Rabbi Yoel Kahn, and in Talmud from Rabbi Asher Arieli or Rabbi Eliyahu Baruch Finkel.

From 1972 on, Reb Meilich headed the editorial staff of a scholarly journal, He’orot Anash Ve-ha-temimim, established primarily as a forum for the study and discussion of the Rebbe’s teachings. This journal, and others like it, would become a prime medium for scholarly interface—not only among the yeshivah students and other Chassidim, but also between them and the Rebbe himself. From the outset, the Rebbe took an active interest in these publications, and with the passage of time he began to respond to them in his public talks, and later to write notes and responses in their margins. Reb Meilich himself was an avid contributor to these journals, often writing under the pen name A. Rosen. In 2005, he helped publish a volume documenting the history of the Morristown journal, and collecting all the public talks and written notes in which the Rebbe responded to and took part in its discussions.

In the introduction to that volume, the editors noted that initially some people were opposed to the idea that yeshivah students should critically discuss the Rebbe’s teachings in a public forum, asking questions and offering possible explanations. A rumor even spread that the Rebbe himself was displeased. Erring on the side of caution, publication was briefly halted until a member of the Rebbe’s secretariat called to ask why, and the editors got to work again. But there was still some doubt about what the Rebbe wanted, and so Reb Meilich arranged a private audience with the Rebbe to clarify the matter. He reported that the Rebbe was emphatic in his endorsement of the journal, noting that in response to the question of a certain rabbi, he had personally sent him a copy of the journal, saying, “here you will find your question, and here you will find your answer.”

Reason and Its Transcendence

Those words of the Rebbe—“here you will find your question, and here you will find your answer”—are a deserving epitaph for Reb Meilich himself. As a student in Morristown between 2006 and 2008, I learned a tremendous amount from him. What I found so refreshing was the conceptual clarity that he demanded both of himself and of others. He wanted his students to fully understand the questions, just as much as he wanted them to find answers. What is a good question? Why is it a good question? What kind of answer will meet its challenge and to what degree? He wanted us to use all the human capacity to think, to critically assess an idea, to determine the boundaries of logic, and ultimately, to use those capacities to discover the need to overcome such boundaries.

I recall Reb Meilich repeating Maimonides’ statement that Aristotle achieved the highest appreciation of G‑d that the human mind can achieve unaided by divine inspiration. In his Guide to the Perplexed, Reb Meilich added, Maimonides himself used only the tools of human intellect to probe and illuminate the truth of the Torah. Accordingly, human intellect itself becomes Torah, and before you read the Guide to the Perplexed, you must first recite the appropriate blessings just as if you were reading a passage from the Tanach or the Talmud.

It was Reb Meilich who first introduced me to the tale of Socrates’ death as told by Plato in the Phaedo. He did so during a class on the fifth Chabad rebbe’s landmark series of discourses, known as Samach Vov, which re-examines the purpose of existence and the respective roles of immanent rationalism and transcendent revelation. And he did so with a Chassidic twist that he had heard from the Chassid Rabbi Avraham Drizin (Mayorer): Having proven the eternity of the soul, Socrates made no sacrifice but exchanged the deficiencies of earthly reality for eternal bliss. The truer sacrifice was Abraham’s. He knew that it is precisely in the transformation of earthly deficiency that G‑d’s ultimate purpose lies. So in surrendering an earthly future, Abraham had to surrender his spiritual future as well, transcending every measure of reason to follow G‑d’s instruction.

A Mentor, Guide and Living Example

Reb Meilich was more than a scholar and more than a teacher. First and foremost, he was a mentor, a builder of relationships, a personal guide and a living example of what a Chassid should be. There were many students who didn’t necessarily attend his classes or follow what he said in them, and yet he was their mentor. He would call students into his office at regular intervals to discuss their studies and their spiritual progress, or simply to find a point of common interest and open the opportunity for a relationship.

As mentioned above, Reb Meilich always kept up with the yeshivah’sTalmud curriculum, and though it wasn’t his responsibility this was another area in which he found opportunity to forge connections. In his office he would not only quiz you on what you were learning, but also invite you to open a volume of Talmud and learn together with him. He would test your limits and challenge you, then show you the way to an additional line of thought or to an overlooked commentator to shed incisive light. Students who took advantage of these opportunities to engage and ask questions were continuously surprised not only by the breadth of his knowledge, but also by the fluent clarity and orderliness with which he discussed whatever topic was brought up.

His erudition was only overshadowed by his personal grace. The gentleness with which he carried his gravitas endeared him to everyone and enabled him to have a meaningful conversation with anyone. He addressed each of his students, and all who sought his inspiration or advice, according to their needs as individuals. When I asked him to be my mentor, he gave me a long reading list. He provided my friend, study partner and roommate—Mendy Efune—with a long reading list as well, and the two lists had very little overlap. Two very different personalities—with different qualities, sensibilities and inclinations—needed to be guided along different paths so that they could each achieve what they needed to as individuals.

As a mentor and a guide, the values that Reb Meilich perhaps emphasized most were discipline and consistency as the key to serving G‑d; and the need to form a personal bond with G‑d through contemplative prayer.

He would sometimes illustrate the first point with an anecdote about Rabbi Nissan Nemanow. While traveling by train, he once observed a student of his looking out the window at each station to see if he had arrived at his destination. Said the rabbi, “Rather than look out the window each time, you should make a note of how many stops you need to go and keep count of the passing stations in your head. Why look where there is no need to look?” Disciplined forethought, in other words, allows an individual to avoid unnecessary distractions and maximize the opportunities of every moment.

Regarding contemplative prayer a related anecdote comes to mind. The fourth Chabad Rebbe—Rabbi Shmuel Schneersohn (the Maharash)—once advised one of his followers that if he wants to know what a Chassid is, he should go and observe what his son and future successor, Rabbi Shalom DovBer Schneersohn, is occupied with early in the morning. Following this advice, the Chassid found that the Rebbe’s son was studying the prayer liturgy and consulting the classical commentaries to gain a proper working knowledge of what the prayers mean. The point that Reb Meilich was making was that you can’t expect to have a meaningful prayer experience if you haven’t done the rigorous preparatory work of familiarizing yourself with what you are actually saying to G‑d.

Reb Meilich’s own practice was to pray along with the congregation on weekdays. On Shabbat, however, he would pray at far greater length. He would begin together with the congregation, but would soon be left far behind. He would pause to listen to the Torah reading, and to the repetition of the Amidah and Musaf prayers. Then he would remain wrapped in his tallis for an hour or two after the congregation had finished and the study hall had emptied out, before vanishing into his office.

In addition to his seminal role at the yeshivah in Morristown, his expertise in halachah earned him a place on the executive board of the Central Committee of Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbis in the U.S. and Canada. As one of the foremost contemporary scholars of Chassidic thought and literature, he was also an involved member of the editorial board of Heichal Menachem-Chassidus Mevueres, whose elucidated commentaries to classic Chassidic texts have been received with much acclaim.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Moshe Zweibel (Brooklyn, N.Y.), Dina Gourarie (Sydney), Rabbi Yossi Zweibel (Brooklyn, N.Y.), Zeldy Oster (Los Angeles), Chani Goldberg (Morristown, N.J.), Rabbi Avi Zweibel (Ashland, Ore.) and Rabbi Mendy Zweibel (Chico, Calif.), as well as by many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

He is also survived by his siblings Moishe Zweibel (London), DevorahGoldberg (Montreal), Zushe Zweibel (Israel), Shoshana Plesser (Israel) and Sara Halperin (Israel). He was predeceased by his brother, Rabbi Yechezkal Zweibel, who headed Yeshiva Tiferet Yaakov in Jerusalem, which was named for their father.

{Matzav.com}

Photos: The Bobov-45 Rebbe at a Kvias Mezuzah Event at the New Bobov-45 Bais Medrash in Lakewood (JDN)

Photos: Preparations for the Vizhnitzer Rebbe’s Upcoming Shabbos in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (JDN)

Photos: Hascholas Kesivas Sefer Torah at the Yeshiva of Rav Moshe Shternbuch in Yerushalayim (JDN)

Watch: Vizhnitzer Rebbe of Bnei Brak Visits America

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The Vizhnitzer Rebbe of Bnei Brak, Rav Yisroel Hager, is currently visiting America to raise funds for the soon to be constructed Vizhnitz world headquarters and shul in Bnei Brak.

Here the Rebbe is seen celebrating the forshpiel of his grandson in Williamsburg.

WATCH:

{Matzav.com}

Rebbetzin Yocheved Malin a”h

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It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the passing at Shaarei Tzedek Hospital Yerushalayim of Rebbetzin Yocheved Malin a”h, wife of Rav Meir Malin zt”l, Rosh Yeshivas Knesses Yehuda in Sanhedria in Yerushalayim. She was 92.

The Rebbetzin was born in Lithuania, a daughter of Rav and Rebbetzin Yosef Zvi Ahronson. She was known as a righteous woman, spending her life as a devoted eizer kengedo to her husband, whose harbotzas Torah she supported.

 

In recent weeks, she fell ill and she passed away overnight.

She leaves behind a generation of bnei and bnos Torah. Her son, Rav Isser Yehuda Malin, is the rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Knesses Yehuda; he is currently in the United States after undergoing surgery there.

The levaya will be held today at 1 p.m. at Yeshivas Knesses Yehuda in Sanhedria in Yerushalayim.

Yehi zichroh boruch.

{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}

Renowned Baalei Chesed at Hadassah Celebrate Birth of Child After 30 Years, With Rav Chodosh’s Bracha

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After thirty years of marriage, Rabbi Yitzchok Meir Peretz and his wife, Sima, have welcomed their first child, a daughter, born at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Yerushalayim.

Both 49 years old, Reb Yitzchok Meir and Sima are residents of the Givat Shaul neighborhood of Yerushalayim, where they are well-known for providing food and drink for patients at Hadassah Ein Kerem for decades, free of charge.

Every Shabbos, with the help of Rabbi Handler at the hospital, the Peretzes provide meals for patients and family members at Hadassah, bringing, wine, challos and more to those at the medical center. They devoted themselves to this chesed as they waited years – decades – for zera shel kayama.

Their prayers were answered yesterday with the birth of their baby.

A talmid of Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon, Rabbi Reuven Tzvi’eli, related that his rosh yeshiva, Rav Moshe Mordechai Chodosh zt”l, who passed away this year, had a special love for Rabbi Peretz.

“During the Rosh Yeshiva’s hospitalization, Rabbi Peretz helped many of the family members staying by his side, and when Rav Chodosh was saying Birkas Hamazon at the hospital, he davened for Rabbi Peretz and criwd.

“Rav Chodosh’s son, Rav Chaim Aryeh Chodosh, related that not once did his father cry during his difficult illness – except that one time, when he davened for Rabbi Peretz to have children.”

Rav Chodosh zt”l, when he said Birkas Hamazon, recited the Birchas Haoreiach – the bracha said by a guest for a host – as a zechus for Rabbi Peretz, and added a special tefillah for Rabbi Peretz to have a child.

May they have much nachas from their daughter and only simchos in the future.

{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}


Tzefas: Only 18 and Older Can Hold Sefer Torah

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A fast day was recently declared in Tzefas’s largest Breslev shul due to a young bochur dropping a Sefer Torah on Simchas Torah.

Anyone unable to fast was to donate at least eighteen shekels to tzedokah. In addition, the kehillah gathered to recite Sefer Tehillim.

The leader of the kehillah, Rav Eliezer Mordechai Kenig, enacted that from now on, only bochurim of 18-years and older will be allowed to carry Sifrei Torah and no one is to speak during hakafos.

{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}

Rav Matisyahu Salomon Said to Be Okay After Scare

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[Update below.] All are asked to say Tehillim for Rav Matisyahu Salomon, mashgiach of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, NJ, who is in need of a refuah shleimah, as Hatzolah has been called to his home.

Rav Salomon served for 30 years as mashgiach ruchani and senior mashgiach of Gateshead Yeshiva, which was initially led by Rav Moshe Schwab. In 1998, Rav Salomon moved to Lakewood and assumed the position of mashgiach at America’s largest yeshiva, Beth Medrash Govoha.

The mashgiach and his wife, Rebbetzin Miriam, have been supremely devoted to the larger American Olam Hatorah since their arrival on these shores some 17 years ago, making themselves available to one and all for guidance and chizuk.

Tefillos and Tehillim for Rav Salomon will be recited shortly in the botei medrash of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, NJ.

May the mashgiach have a refuah sheleimah.

The name for Tehillim is Matisyahu Chaim ben Ettil.

UPDATE: Rav Salomon is said to be okay and doing well. May he have continued strength and gezunt.

{Matzav.com Newscenter}

Rabbi Elias Schwartz zt”l

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It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the passing of Rabbi Elias (Eliezer) Schwartz zt”l, outstanding mechanech who served for over 60 years as the menahel of Yeshivah Toras Emes Kaminetz in Brooklyn, NY.

Rabbi Schwartz was also the rov of Young Israel of Bensonhurst.

Rabbi Schwartz studied in his youth at Yeshiva Toras Vodaas, where he formed an unbreakable bond with the legendary menahel, Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz zt”l, who gave Rabbi Schwartz the tools he used in his decades of educating and inspiring Yiddishe kinder.

Rabbi Schwartz was a Shuvu board member as well, and is remembered for his dedication to harbotzas haTorah in America and Eretz Yisroel. His accomplishments were legendary, and he had the nachas of counting among his talmidim the most illustrious names in the Torah world.

Rabbi Schwartz was a regular at the Bais Medrash Govoah yarchei kallah in Lakewood during the summer along with his son, Dr. Yehudah Schwartz, for many years.

One of Rabbi Schwartz’s talmidim at Toras Emes was Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, the present Slabodka rosh yeshiva, who returned to his roots several years ago. Some seventy years prior, in 1944, when Brooklyn was still in its fledgling stages as a frum community, young Moshe Hillel Hirsch attended Yeshiva Toras Emes Elementary School. Rav Hirsch returned to that very school a few years ago, and then requested to be taken to the home of the centenarian menahel, Rabbi Schwartz, who was the principal of Toras Emes when Rav Moshe Hillel was a young talmid of the yeshiva. Rav Hirsch thanked Rabbi Schwartz for the values he instilled in him.

“I have no words to thank you for all that you did for me and my classmates,” Rav Hirsch told Rabbi Schwartz. “You always told us that no matter what we do in our lifetime, we must first become talmidei chachomim! Your words still inspire me to this very day.”

Indeed, Rabbi Schwartz inspired so many people, young and old, and he will forever be remembered as a pioneering mechanech on the American Torah scene.

Among his other talmidim are Rav Meir Stern, rosh yeshiva of the Yeshiva Gedola of Passaic, and Rav Yeruchem Olshin, rosh yeshiva of Bais Medrash Govoha.

His levayah will take place tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.at Yeshiva Toras Emes Kamenitz, located at the corner of Avenue N and East 19th Street in Flatbush.

Rabbi Schwartz is survived by his children, R’ Yehuda Schwartz and Mrs. Fay Hoschander.

Yehi zichro boruch.

{CB Frommer-Matzav.com Newscenter}

Photos: The Toldos Aharon Rebbe Visiting the Home of Reb Avrohom Biderman in Boro Park (JDN)

Tefillos for Rav Matisyahu Salomon

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All are asked to say Tehillim for Rav Matisyahu Salomon, mashgiach of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, NJ, who is in need of a refuah shleimah, as Hatzolah has transported him to Monmouth Medical Southern Campus in Lakewood.

Earlier in the day, Matzav reported that Hatzolah was called to the mashgiach‘s home after he had breathing difficulties.

The name for Tehillim is Matisyahu Chaim ben Ettil.

{Matzav.com Newscenter}

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