Ner Moshe’s Rav Avrohom Gurewitz was a guiding beacon through shifting generations

Photos: Yeshivas Ner Moshe and family archives

Rav Avrohom Gurewitz, rosh yeshivah of Ner Moshe and prolific mechaber of the Ohr Avrohom series and more, was in his late eighties, still going strong, still learning and writing seforim, when — recovering from a hospital stay and about to return home — he was suddenly gone, the open notebook on his desk bearing witness to his latest work. Yet he left in his wake a million sparks that he personally ignited, encouraged, and fanned 

And if I have merited to express some theory or understanding in words of Torah, or to find some novel concept in the words of the Rishonim and Acharonim which, if written, will be helpful to others, then it is certainly my obligation to do so. And through this I, too — Avrohom, descendant of Avraham Avinu — will merit to somewhat illuminate the darkness and obscurity that covers the earth, as long as we are placed in the world of tohu vavohu in this bitter exile.

These words are written as part of the introduction to the sefer Ohr Avrohom, by Rav Avrohom Gurewitz ztz”l, on sugyos haShas. The essay begins by quoting the midrash which teaches that the words “yehi ohr — let there be light” refer to Avraham Avinu.

Avraham Avinu was the very definition of light.

Why is this?

Rav Gurewitz suggests that it’s because Avraham Avinu didn’t just learn Torah.

He taught Torah.

He let others see the brilliance that he himself perceived.

He brought the masses into his world.

He shared, he cared, he sacrificed, and he taught, taught, taught.

And that, says Rav Gurewitz, is the very personification of light.

Rav Gurewitz was also named Avrohom, and he saw it as his obligation to model himself after the patriarch of our People.

His mission was to spread light.

For over five decades, Rav Avrohom Gurewitz taught Torah in various settings and institutions. He himself was a relentless masmid, learning all day and deep into the night, possessing encyclopedic knowledge of the gamut of Torah. His 23 volumes of chiddushim, all titled Ohr Avrohom, are each jammed margin to margin with his writings, running for some nine hundred pages. But learning alone wasn’t enough. He had to spread light, and so he invited thousands of others to join him in the world he loved so much.

It can’t be a coincidence that when he opened a yeshivah and named it after his father, Rav Moshe Gurewitz, he chose to call it “Ner Moshe — Moshe’s Candle.”

Upon this candle he cast a light.

Last Thursday, without notice, this light suddenly extinguished in a wisp of smoke. Rav Avrohom Gurewitz, rosh yeshivah of Yeshivas Ner Moshe, had been in the hospital for a week, receiving treatment for pneumonia. He was recovering, readying to return home, and then… he was gone.

He left this world in a whisper, leaving in his wake a million flashes of light that he personally ignited, encouraged, fanned until they reached independence.

Ad shetehei shalheves oleh m’eilehah — until the flame can rise by itself.

And those flames will continue to shine with the Torah that he spent a lifetime teaching.