This year, on the fourth of Elul, Rav Avrohom Ausband gave his final, most powerful — albeit wordless — shmuess

Photos: Mattis Golberg; AE Gedolim Photos

Rav Avrohom Ausband lived by a credo inherited from his grandfather, the Telshe Rav, who promised a Nazi during the Holocaust that the whole world would yet recognize the Power of Hashem. With this as his guide, Rav Avrohom developed his own mantra: “Torah is a one-way street. You go forward, and you go forward, and you go forward.”

Rav Avrohom Ausband would frequently share the story of his grandfather and namesake, Rav Avrohom Yitzchok Bloch ztz”l, the Telshe Rav.

It was the summer of 1941; the Nazis had taken over the town of Telshe and were torturing the Jews incessantly. One day, a Nazi produced a hammer and mercilessly beat the Telshe Rav over the head. He then laughed. “Herr Rabiner,” he said, “A vuh yetzt iz dein G-tt? — Where is your G-d now?” The Telshe Rav looked at him and said, “Ehr iz nisht nuhr mein G-tt, ehr iz dein G-tt! — He is not only my G-d, he is your G-d!”

And he continued:

“Uhn der gantze velt veht dos zehn!”

And the whole world will yet see this.

The Telshe Rav was murdered shortly thereafter, as was the vast majority of the town’s Jewish population.

But his three daughters survived.

Rochel went on to marry Rav Boruch Sorotzkin, rosh yeshivah of Telshe, Cleveland. Miriam married Rav Yosef Yehudah Kleiner and settled in Switzerland, and Chaya married Rav Aizik Ausband, also a rosh yeshivah in Telshe, Cleveland.

In 1948, the Ausbands were blessed with a baby boy, the first of nine children. They named him Avrohom, after the Telsher Rav. Little Avrohom — or Avremele as he was called — demonstrated remarkable genius from an early age. His parents chose to homeschool him until he was eight years old, at which time he joined the yeshivah’s ninth grade. He excelled through his schooling, stunning his teachers with his genius. All who knew him were confident that the young prodigy would attain towering levels of greatness in Torah.

These aspirations soon came to fruition. Avrohom went from Telshe to Brisk, married the daughter of Rav Binyamin Zeilberger, rosh yeshivah of Beis Hatalmud, and after several years in kollel, while still in his early thirties, set out to establish his own yeshivah — The Yeshiva of Telshe Alumni.

He was already a giant in Torah — but that was just the beginning.

What Rav Avrohom went on to accomplish far exceeded the boundaries of any one institution. Once his talmidim completed their years in yeshivah, he would ensure that they maximized their potential — building Torah their own way. He became involved in any yeshivah or kollel that his students established, often taking on significant financial burdens in doing so.

He seemed to have endless reserves of energy — his davening, his chesed, his Torah, all appeared to draw upon something that superseded nature.

Because it did.

Rav Avraham’s greatness was that it was never about himself. His life’s mission was to fulfill his grandfather’s declaration.

Torah must grow — in Riverdale, Lakewood, Eretz Yisrael, and far beyond.

Because Hashem rules the entire Universe.

“Uhn der gantze velt veht duhs zehn.”