Today there are 36 minyanim in Ramat Hasharon says Rav Edelstein’s son Rav Yitzchak Edelstein a maggid shiur in Yeshivah Ketanah Torah Betifartah and rav of the “Young Israel” minyan in Ramat Hasharon “and my father would make sure to participate in each one. On the first day of Rosh Hashanah he would daven in his regular shul but starting from Maariv of the second night he would go around to the old shuls of the Turks the Persians the Yemenites and the Greeks the baal teshuvah minyanim the dati-leumi the traditional. In every place he would speak calculating his time carefully. Shacharis here Tekias Shofar there Mussaf Minchah and Maariv in other places. If you ask the mispallelim of the various shuls they’ll tell you that Abba belonged to them. He knew everyone asked about this one’s father remembered that one’s grandfather and with the older ones knew about every grandchild or great-grandchild that was born. Before he fell ill two years ago he was already 91 and still walking the streets of Ramat Hasharon to every one of those shuls giving his regular shiurim.”

Staying Together 

And to think when Rav Edelstein came to the town as a ten-year-old immigrant in 1934 he started out in a chicken coop.

He was born in the Russian town of Szumiacz near Smolensk where his father Rav Tzvi Yehudah Edelstein served as av beis din. Yaakov and his brother Rav Gershon shlita — longtime rosh yeshivah of Ponevezh and one year his senior — spent their early years learning Torah with their father once the town came under Communist rule and all the chadarim were closed down. In 1932 after the death of their mother Rebbetzin Miriam (daughter of Melstovka av beis din Rav Mordechai Shlomo Movshovitz) the young Rav Tzvi Yehudah his two sons daughter Pesia (Gershonovitz a”h) and his mother managed to obtain passage on a ship from Odessa to Eretz Yisrael.

As they had not registered with any of the political movements at the time they had to fend for themselves for a place to live and although relatives who came to greet them at the Haifa port offered to share their own tiny apartment with the new arrivals there was really no room for all of them — and so the family split up with Pesia going to one relative and her grandmother to another. Rav Tzvi Yehudah refused to separate from his two sons however and searched for a place where the three could live together so that he could continue to teach them Torah. Nothing he said could compensate for learning with his sons.

Soon the small fragmented family found themselves a home — an empty chicken coop in the village of Ramat Hasharon. A few crates courtesy of the owner of a nearby orchard served as beds chairs and a table but father and sons needed nothing more as long as their days could be filled with learning Torah in freedom.

A short time later, Rav Tzvi Yehudah was asked to serve as the rav of Ramat Hasharon, but even once they settled into proper accommodations, the young brothers continued learning with their father — their exclusive spiritual guide and mentor. There were few religious families nearby aside for some elderly, and the only school was a government one — and so the brothers stayed home and continued learning from morning to night, daf after daf, perek after perek, masechta after masechta.

One morning when Rav Tzvi Yehudah came into shul, he noticed a new sefer on the table. The title was Chazon Ish — but how did a sefer of this gadol from Russia get to Ramat Hasharon? One of the mispallelim told the rav that he had brought it from nearby Bnei Brak. He noted that he had met the author, who had recently arrived in Eretz Yisrael, and purchased his sefer as a gesture to help out the humble talmid chacham newcomer with a few extra lirot.

The rav didn’t waste any time, wrote down the author’s address, and traveled to Bnei Brak with his sons to meet the gaon from Vilna. The Chazon Ish warmly welcomed the rav of Ramat Hasharon and spent time speaking in learning with his sons. Their knowledge and the standard of their learning astounded him, and he was shocked to hear that they had never stepped foot in a yeshivah, save for a short period of time when they learned in cheder in Russia.

“I feel that perhaps I am making a mistake,” Rav Tzvi Yehudah told the Chazon Ish. “Perhaps I’m preventing their growth in Torah by not sending them to yeshivah.”

But the Chazon Ish reassured Rav Edelstein that he was doing the right thing, and encouraged him to continue learning with his sons at home until they got older. Those days of their home beis medrash continued until Elul 1942, when the bochurim, aged 17 and 16, went to learn in Yeshivas Lomza in Petach Tikvah — the first time they’d ventured into a learning framework outside their home. It was Rav Gershon who petitioned their father for the change, and his winning argument was a question of hasmadah — he told his father that because of the rav’s many communal responsibilities including piskei halachah and shechitah, their learning was often interrupted. In yeshivah, they’d be able to learn round the clock. The Chazon Ish agreed to the change, but told them, “You’ve already learned a derech halimud from your father. Just make sure not to ruin it in yeshivah.”

The Next Golden Era

Their time in Lomza lasted just over a year though; during that time Rav Tzvi Yehudah remarried, and now that the new rebbetzin had taken over many of his tasks, he’d be able to devote a full learning schedule to them and summoned them back home.

A few months later, though, at the end of 1943, Rav Shmuel Rozovsky — who knew the bochurim from Lomza — paid a visit to the Edelstein home to speak to the rav about a yeshivah being established by the Ponevezher Rav — Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman — on a hill in Bnei Brak, of which he himself would be the rosh yeshivah. The Chazon Ish had recommended bringing the boys to the nascent yeshivah, and this time Rav Tzvi Yehudah agreed. Finally he’d found a place where his scholarly sons could grow in the coming years.

With only six boys to start the yeshivah, the Edelstein brothers, who comprised one-third of Ponevezh in those days, made a name for themselves. And throughout their years in Ponevezh, the brothers maintained their learning sedorim together, during which time they became very close to the Chazon Ish and his brother-in-law, Rav Yisrael Yaakov Kanievsky — the Steipler Gaon.

Later, they would talk about it as their golden era, a period of intense spiritual growth. It was marred, however, by the sudden passing of their father, Rav Tzvi Yehudah, in 1950. Rav Yaakov was already engaged to be married to his cousin Chaya Shulamis, daughter of Rav Mordechai Shmuel Krul of Kfar Chassidim, and the Ponevezher Rav  had offered him a teaching position in Ponevezh for after his wedding. But now, who would take over his father’s rabbanus in Ramat Hasharon? His older brother Rav Gershon already had a position in the yeshivah, and his brother-in-law Rav Reuven Yosef Gershonovitz was a rav in Petach Tikvah, so that left him.

Rav Yaakov was still a young man, hesitant to fill his illustrious father’s shoes, but the push came from the Chazon Ish himself: At Rav Yaakov’s chasunah, the Chazon Ish presented him with a copy of his sefer, in which he inscribed, “Hagaon Harav Yaakov Edelstein, Mara d’Asra d’Ramat Hasharon.” The dilemma had been resolved.

Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer wrote a warm, effusive ksav semichah for Rav Yaakov, as an affirmation to his new status as rav. Rav Yaakov served in this position for close to seven decades, until his passing last month.

At first, the Ponevezher Rav paid for transportation to the yeshivah each day so he could deliver shiurim, but when tight finances precluded this, Rav Yaakov came to the Chazon Ish to ask how he could continue his harbatzas haTorah. In response, the Chazon Ish gave him a booklet of receipts, atop which he wrote by hand, “Yeshivas Hasharon.”

“There you will be marbitz Torah,” the Chazon Ish said. And that’s how the local yeshivah was established — a directive that became a precursor to the many institutions Rav Yaakov helped create and maintain, and was the thread that ran through all of his accomplishments. He opened the town’s first kollel over 40 years ago near his home, and subsequently opened another three — two of them for baalei teshuvah.

Yeshivas Hasharon closed down in the 1980s, but Rav Yaakov just became busier. He was then called to head Yeshivas Chug Chasam Sofer (Yeshivas Machaneh Avraham) and Yeshivas Sadigura, both in Bnei Brak. Several years later he was also appointed rav of Bnei Brak’s Neot Yosef neighborhood and rosh yeshivah of Yeshivas Tiferes Moshe. He was renowned as one of the leading poskim and dayanim in the Torah world, and for decades, rabbanim from around the country would travel to Ramat Hasharon to consult with Rav Yaakov about hilchos shechitah, in which he was an expert.

And age never inhibited him. He was part of Rav Nissim Karelitz’s beis din until 2012, headed the town’s Talmud Torah and Bais Yaakov, established a network of chareidi ganim, and more recently set up a local Hatzolah and an organization to support families during shivah. Seven years ago, he oversaw what he considered to be his most important project — the establishment of the New Seminar of Tel Aviv, a high school directed by venerated mechanech Rav Noach Orlowek, for Bais Yaakov graduates whose family backgrounds made getting into “good” schools problematic.

In 2010, following a massive heart attack in which clinical death was determined, he managed to not only survive, but regained the strength to continue with his multitude of projects. At age 88, he even remarried, following the passing of his wife four years earlier. (His first wife passed away when she was just 24, bearing him one son, Rav Mordechai; he then married her sister, Rebbetzin Minna, with whom he had another 11 children.)

Yet all that activity never precluded him from having an open door to the entire town. From dati-leumi to left-wing Meretz supporters, just about everyone approached him with their dilemmas and sought his advice in all fields.

Although he was respected as one of the gedolim of the Litvish world, for many years he was a close disciple of the tzaddik nistar Rav Moshe Yaakov Rabikof, known as the Sandlar (shoemaker) of Tel Aviv and head of a secret group of kabbalists.

“For many years this was hidden,” says Yaakov Koretzky, “but somehow about a decade ago the Rav became known as a baal mofes. People from all over the country came for his segulos. But no matter how crowded it was, the people of our town always

came first.”

Visiting Writes

In the last two years, Rav Edelstein’s health deteriorated, yet not even complex throat surgery that left him unable to speak deterred him. Instead, he began to communicate in writing. His brother and best friend, Ponevezh Rosh Yeshivah Rav Gershon Edelstein, would visit him several times a week: Rav Gershon would speak and Rav Yaakov would write.

Although many decades have passed since the early days in Ramat Hasharon, those visits brought back old memories, and even uncovered some unknown secrets which were finally revealed. For Rav Yaakov’s grandsons, who took round-the-clock shifts at his bedside, those conversations opened up a world of little-known family history.

In one of those conversations, Rav Gershon reminded his brother of their learning schedule when they first arrived, huddled together in the chicken coop. “At first, we learned Maseches Bava Kama, Gemara with Rashi. Then we learned Maseches Sanhedrin. Why Sanhedrin? Because there were no gemaras around, except Sanhedrin. There was Maseches Shevuos in the same binding so we learned that next.”

Rav Gershon also talked about their father’s connection not only to the Chazon Ish but to the Brisker Rav as well. “You know,” he said, “Tatte didn’t only go to the Chazon Ish to ask about us learning at home, in 1941 he also went to the Brisker Rav, who said it wasn’t worth it, and that we should continue a bit more at home. Then we went to ask the Chazon Ish again, and he also said it would be preferable for us to remain at home and not go to yeshivah yet.”

Rav Yaakov: “I remember it like this: When I was about 16 and you were 17, you suggested that we go to yeshivah. Rav Aharon Cohen, the rosh yeshivah of Chevron at the time, was a friend of Tatte from Russia, and he offered to take us into his yeshivah, but Tatte still wanted us to learn at home. He went to the Brisker Rav, and he asked: ‘Zei lernen, tzu nit?’ [Are they learning or not?] If they are learning what could be better than this? Continue learning with them.’ After some time, when the suggestion to go to yeshivah came up again, Tatte went to the Chazon Ish to consult with him. He told him that we were in the middle of Yevamos, and the Chazon Ish said we should continue. Then, when we were 18 and 17, you came with the winning argument. Because Tatte was also a shochet, while he was busy with shechitah we couldn’t learn. And therefore, it would be better to go to yeshivah so that we should get in more learning time. He understood and agreed.

“On the following Chol Hamed Pesach, Tatte took us to visit the Chazon Ish. As soon as we entered, he asked: ‘Are you still learning Yevamos?’ My father was so impressed and said, ‘Way back I once said that we were learning Yevamos and the Rav remembers until now?’

“The Chazon Ish smiled, and said with his trademark sense of humor, ‘Well, you know I review everything…’ ”

Am Segulah

Rav Yaakov’s home became known as a place to seek out yeshuos, brachos, and segulos. His family members shared some of the well-known segulos that he used to advise:

For a shidduch: Rav Yaakov would advise reciting Chapter 32 of Tehillim each day.

For parnassah: He instructed reciting Chapter 23 in Tehillim each day.

Before closing deals or purchasing a house: He advised reciting V’hi Noam.

For children: His talmid and nephew Rav Chizkiyahu Mishkovsky wrote a page of instructions in the name of his rebbi for those who do not have children. One of the instructions is to come to the kever of the Chazon Ish with a minyan at chatzos. Indeed, each night, one can see several minyanim, and there are many stories of yeshuos of people who had no children for many years, and who were blessed with children a short time later.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 652)