“I just sat down and I pashut cried. I said Tehillim, and I said, ‘Ribbono shel Olam, just help me out.’ As I closed my Tehillim, the phone rings...”

Living Higher

R

abbi Yaakov Bernfeld is the director of Adopt-A-Kollel, the revolutionary organization that pairs communities, shuls, businesses and individuals with kollelim in Eretz Yisrael. Their flagship model coordinates partnerships wherein entire shuls or communities collectively support a kollel. Also under the Adopt-A-Kollel umbrella is a somewhat lesser-known initiative called the Menuchas Hanefesh program, which works on a more personal scale. Instead of a group supporting a kollel as a whole, an individual donor partners with a specific avreich and his family, providing steady assistance to ease financial strain.

A few weeks ago, a donor approached Rabbi Bernfeld, telling him that he wanted to undertake the financial support for two avreichim. Rabbi Bernfeld identified two suitable candidates and his staff got to work on the necessary paperwork, which can take some time. When things were in place, Adopt-A-Kollel’s Israeli coordinator called the recipient family to inform them they’d be receiving a monthly stipend, courtesy of a generous donor who wanted to partake in the zechus of limud haTorah.

The avreich’s wife, who took the call, heard the news and started sobbing. “I want you to know,” she said finally, her sobs subsiding into quiet, shaky breaths, “my husband and I both come from non-frum families, and it’s only with mesirus nefesh that my husband is able to sit and learn. We get no support, and recently it became so difficult that I reached a breaking point.

“Today, I just sat down and I pashut cried. I said Tehillim, and I said, ‘Ribbono shel Olam, just help me out.’ As I closed my Tehillim, the phone rings with the news that a respectable sum would be deposited into our account each month.”

In Memory

ON Friday afternoon a week and half ago, the Rebbe of Kretchnif-Sighet, Rav Zayde Eliezer Ze’ev Rosenbaum ztz”l, suffered a severe stroke and collapsed suddenly in his Yerushalayim beis medrash during Minchah. The name Baruch was added, and Yidden from all over entreated Hashem for a refuah sheleimah. Three days later, surrounded by family and chassidim, the Rebbe returned his soul to his Creator.

The Rebbe was born in Kiryat Ata in 1950 to the Rebbe of Kretchnif and Rebbetzin Shifra, a granddaughter of the Dvar Chaim of Nadvorna, in a home steeped in purity and kedushah. Even as a young child, Zayde Eliezer had an uncommon passion for davening and displayed tireless hasmadah. In his earliest years, the Rebbe learned in the Satmar cheder in Kiryat Eliezer in Haifa and later in Tchebin of Yerushalayim. He married Rebbetzin Frimet, the daughter of Rav Yechezkel Shraga Mertz (the Rebbe of Tolaas Yaacov), and later, after her untimely passing, he married the daughter of Rav Ephraim Fishel Brach.

In 2006, after the petirah of his father, he was crowned Rebbe in Williamsburg, and three years later, he inaugurated a new beis medrash in Williamsburg. His tishen there were legendary — they would last until the wee hours of the morning, and at Shalosh Seudos, he would again speak for hours on end.

After a decade of leading a kehillah in America and presiding over a chassidus with branches in Eretz Yisrael, he moved to Yerushalayim’s Beis Yisrael neighborhood, where he opened up a shtibel on Rechov Rappaport, also home to many American bochurim learning in Mir. His Leil HaSeder tish, conducted on Pesach Sheni while dressed in bigdei Shabbos, became a staple on the Yerushalmi calendar. The Rebbe’s focus on kedushah, personal humility, mesirus nefesh for every individual, and an uncanny ability to strengthen even the most broken defined his life’s avodah. Even American bochurim found themselves attracted to this Satmar-aligned Rebbe — outspoken against Zionism, but throbbing with ahavas Yisrael.

His chassidim published his Torah writings in small booklets titled Raza D’Emunah (the first word an acronym of his name: Rebbe Zayde Eliezer Ze’ev Rosenbaum) and a sefer titled Lehavos Eish.

At the levayah, the Rebbe’s older son, Rav Naftali Hertzka Yitzchak was appointed in his father place’s, and likewise, all the Rebbe’s sons were appointed to serve as rebbes. Yehei zichro baruch.

The Lens

AS Klal Yisrael prepares itself for the awesome day of Rosh Hashanah, the artisans at Pamonim Judaica in Lakewood put their machinery to work getting our shuls and batei medrashim ready as well. Against a pure white backdrop, golden threads swirl into timeless motifs, pillars and crowns take form, and the embroidery machine hums along quietly, ensuring every detail is in place to welcome the upcoming Yamim Noraim.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1077)